As we all know, professional sports can carry quite a bit of controversy at times. Whether that be in the NFL, with Colin Kaepernick kneeling during the national anthem back in 2016, or in the MLB, where almost every year you can hear reports of different players using endless amounts of performance enhancing drugs, there always seems to be something to talk about. However, we are not here to take a blast to the past, because sports controversy has graced us with its presence yet again, and this time it has surfaced in the NBA. So what is this story of controversy? Well, let’s jump right in so you can find out.
Before the start of the 20–21 season, Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, made the decision that the national anthem would no longer be played before the start of the team’s home games. The reason given for this decision was that he felt like the anthem was not representing the feelings of everyone, and he wanted the voices of those not being represented to be heard. Despite this reason, the move was never really publicized and the team never issued an official statement on the matter. There were even some team employees who found out only by discovering it for themselves when games started up. Furthermore, Cuban upheld his promise, as the anthem was not heard during the team’s first 13 pre-season and regular season games. This was one of the first reported incidents of something like this happening, besides in 2020, when the anthem was not played during an MLS tournament in Orlando where there were no fans present.
Despite a move like this being considered majorly controversial, it wasn’t until last week that public backlash started to show its face. However, when it did show, it hit hard and fast. Reports of the situation started flooding news and social media. The NBA then issued a mandate on Wednesday, February 10, saying that the national anthem would be required at all games, no acceptions. Even the governor of Texas, Dan Patrick, got involved in the situation. In a tweet on the tenth he said, “@mcuban Your decision to cancel our National Anthem at @dallasmavs games is a slap in the face to every American & an embarrassment to Texas. Sell the franchise & some Texas Patriots will buy it. We ARE the land of free & the home of the brave.”
Once the mandate was put into place by the NBA, Cuban backed off on the whole thing, saying that he was fine with their decision and that the anthem would return to games.
It should be noted that this decision from Mark Cuban did not just come out of the blue. He has been subject to other similar controversy in the past. Before a game in Orlando last season, several Mavericks players knelt during the national anthem, a move that has been drowned in controversy since Kaepernick in 2016. After that event, Cuban made a statement to ESPN saying, “If they were taking a knee, and they were being respectful, I’d be proud of them. Hopefully, I’d join them.”
Just two days after this statement, he would go on to tweet this: “The National Anthem Police in this country are out of control. If you want to complain, complain to your boss and ask why they don’t play the National Anthem every day before you start work.”
Then, before the start of the current season, the NBA stated that because of the circumstances being faced due to the pandemic, teams could run their pregame operations as they see fit. This is what led Mark Cuban to remove the anthem from these operations.
For the time-being the situation seems to be a closed case. However, with things like kneeling and the national anthem becoming such a tense and split-opinion topic in recent years, it is very much possible that we will continue to see similar cases pop up in the future. Only time will tell.
