Following the blow for not playing the national anthem before the games, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said he did not “cancel” the song that has become the subject of social protests in recent years after it was a staple at sporting events. since the First World War.
The Cuban told ESPN “The Jump” that the team was having ongoing conversations about whether to play “The Star Spangled Banner”, but that “we would probably have played it at some point when the fans came back”.
However, the national anthem was not played at the Dallas arena on Monday night, when some fans were invited to watch the match in person for the first time this season.
Until then, it had not been documented that the Cuban had told the team before the season to stop playing “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the American Airlines Center.
On Wednesday, the NBA said it would require all teams to play the national anthem.
The Mavericks played the national anthem before Wednesday’s game and all players appeared standing up. Several fans cheered afterwards.
“I did not cancel the national anthem,” the Cuban told ESPN before denying it. “We still had our flag flying proudly on the wall at the American Airlines Center and everyone had a chance to address him and pray to him or greet him or whatever their feelings were.”
The 62-year-old Pittsburgh native added that, “listening to the community, there were quite a few people who expressed their concerns, really fears that the national anthem did not fully represent them, that their voices were not heard. ”
The NBA in recent years has refused to enforce a rule that requires players to stand up for the anthem as a result of athletes from all sports kneeling in it in protest of social injustice.
The Cuban was not the first to try to break the national anthem. In 1954, the then general manager of the Baltimore Orioles, Arthur Ehlers, stopped playing it before every game, because “it tends to make the song cheaper and diminish the emotion of the response,” he said, according to The Washington Post.
Ehlers later relented.