NBA to Players: You Must Stand for National Anthem
“Demonstrate your commitment to the NBA's core values of equality, diversity, inclusion and serve as a unifying force in the community.”
10.2.2017
8
In 1996—at a time when sports organizations were more concerned about their fans than their allegiance to offensive political statements—Denver Nuggets point guard Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf sat in protest during the National Anthem, later citing the flag as a symbol of oppression. The result was a league suspension for the basketball player and a new policy requiring players, coaches, trainers, scouts, and other employees to stand for “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
Fast-forward to the 2017 controversy in which the NFL is losing favor—and finances—as they lower themselves into a deepening well of toxic transgression in the eyes of the American audience, and we see a NBA reluctant to take the same suicidal plunge.
To this end, the National Basketball Association sent a memo Friday to its team presidents and general managers, reminding them of its long-standing mandate. Authored by Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum, the notice compelled teams to use the first games of the season — of which preseason games were to begin Saturday — to “demonstrate your commitment to the NBA's core values of equality, diversity, inclusion and serve as a unifying force in the community.”
Providing for a bit of expression prior to each game’s playing of our country’s anthem, the memorandum permitted players or other employees to speak to fans or show videos of players or others regarding “the issues they care about.”
Concerning any act of rebellion toward the regulation, the letter stated, “The league office will determine how to deal with any possible instance in which a player, coach or trainer does not stand for the anthem. (Teams do not have the discretion to waive this rule).”
Given the backlash of the NFL’s allowance—and even support—of those refusing to stand for America’s greatest statement of patriotism set to music, the NBA is clearly taking a preemptive approach to any potentially detrimental slight toward its fanbase; and in doing so, it’s adhering to an idea that seems increasingly absent in our leftist-dominated, politically radical media culture: entertainment is supposed to be escapist fun for the masses.
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