Chicago Bulls Make Juneteenth And Election Days Organizational Holidays

The Atlanta Hawks were the first NBA team to designate Juneteenth as an organizational holiday. Other NBA teams are following suit, including the Chicago Bulls.

Bulls president and chief operating officer Michael Reinsdorf made the announcement during a virtual Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce meeting on Thursday, according to K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago. With this announcement, Bulls employees will get paid time off every June 19.

Juneteenth celebrates when Union forces arrived in Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865 to officially proclaim slaves free after the Civil War. This day marks the emancipation of all slaves in the Confederacy, with slavery officially becoming illegal nationwide when the 13th amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified in December 1865.

In addition to Juneteenth becoming an annual holiday for the Bulls, Election Days will get the same designation. The Bulls are working to encourage people to register to vote and participate in elections.

This follows the creation of a voting rights initiative led by LeBron James and a number of other athletes. LeBron has been vocal in the wake of George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police in late May, calling for change as he fights against racial injustices involving police brutality and voter suppression.

A host of other NBA players have joined this fight, with players taking to the streets for peaceful protests around the country. Bulls star Zach LaVine attended a Seattle rally in early June and made it a point to encourage people to go out and vote, acknowledging it would be his first time doing so.

“Go vote,” LaVine said. “I haven’t been able to go and do that yet, but coming this November I am going to, because I know it’s gonna change something.

LaVine later admitted why he hadn’t voted before in a conference call with reporters, acknowledging he’s trying to learn more about the process and how important it is.

“It (voting) just wasn’t something that I was hip to,” LaVine said, via NBC Sports Chicago’s Rob Schaefer. “Obviously, I know that you have the right to vote, but everybody doesn’t have to. With what’s going on, I think it matters a lot more now, at least to me, because I think every single vote counts. Before, I wasn’t educated at all on it. I’m trying to educate myself now more on the politics and what goes on and how things are voted on. So just taking action in my own community and trying to do my part is the reason why I’m moving forward with that.”

It’s good to see LaVine is educating himself and getting involved, and he and Thaddeus Young both recently revealed that new Bulls executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas is pushing for open discussions on all these social issues.

Members of the Bulls organization also have an open invite to Friday’s peace march in Chicago:

This peace march will be a Juneteenth learning opportunity and a way to support the Black Lives Matter movement.