Haven’t you heard of protests against the national anthem at the Mavericks? There is a good reason for this: Dallas no longer plays and will no longer play “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
Mark Cuban told The Athletic that it was his decision to eliminate the tradition of singing the anthem before the games. The move went unnoticed through the first 13 combined pre-season and regular season games at the American Airlines Center, as the Mavericks did not advertise, either within the organization or through an announcement to the media. Monday marked the first game in which the Mavericks allowed a limited number of fans to enter their arena.
The Cuban expressed his voice about the support given to those who want to kneel during the singing of the national anthem, a practice that former 49er defender Colin Kaepernick started in 2016 and which has become a lightning rod for partisan political debates.
The sincere owner of the Mavericks told ESPN last July about the potential of his team’s players to kneel during the anthem: “If they got on their knees and were respectful, I would be proud of them” and that he hopes he will “join them.” He later wrote on Twitter, in response to what he called the “National Anthem Police,” that if critics of the nonviolent protest of systemic racism in the United States questioned, then he could “complain to the chief and ask why the National Anthem does not play the role every day before it starts working. ”
Although NBA rules require players to stand while performing the anthem, Commissioner Adam Silver has chosen to ignore the rule in support of his players’ decisions to speak out.
“I recognize that this is a very emotional issue on both sides of the American equation right now,” Silver told a news conference in December, “and I think it requires real commitment rather than enforcement.”