NBA players went on strike this week and received several concessions from owners to help in their social justice efforts in what was one of the most prominent examples of how labor can organize in recent memory.

“Right now, for the first time in my experience with professional sports, the players have the attention of the owners,” said B.J. Armstrong, a player agent who was a guard for the Chicago Bulls when the team won three championships. “But if the players don’t play, what is going to happen? I think the players understand economically what that would do to them.”

“I’ve never seen a day like that, that tested our entire league,” Lloyd Pierce said in an interview. “That power is tremendous. The opportunity is tremendous.”

“Quietly I think league executives are scared about this,” said Amira Rose Rose, the Penn State expert on sports and labor history. “It shows the potential of athletic labor power and that’s why they’ll try to limit it by trying to co-opt it, contain it and declaw it.”