NBA Announces Teams Will Be Playing The National Anthem As Fans Are Welcomed Back To Arenas

NBA Announces Teams Will Be Playing The National Anthem As Fans Are Welcomed Back To Arenas

NBA Announces Teams Will Be Playing The National Anthem As Fans Are Welcomed Back To Arenas

The NBA recently announced that all teams will be playing the national anthem, addressing the league’s rule on playing “The Star Spangled Banner” before games.

RELATED: NBA Season Start Just Around The Corner As 2020-21 Pre-Season And Christmas Day Schedule Released

“With NBA teams now in the process of welcoming fans back into their arenas, all teams will play the national anthem in keeping with longstanding league policy,” Mike Bass, NBA chief communications officer, said via the NBA.

If you’ve ever gone to any sporting event ever (especially pre-2020), you recall standing for the national anthem, with the public address announcer saying something to the effect of “gentlemen, please remove your hats” as a collective. It’s where people united across differing backgrounds, ethnicities, races–Americans–to sing the national anthem together in a moment of unity. Usually a spotlight would highlight the American flag in the arena and people would place their hands over their hearts.

Now, with silent protests of the anthems, teams staying in locker rooms during the anthem, players taking a knee during the anthem, and more controversy surrounding it to take a stand in highlighting the social injustice going on within our society, the playing of the national anthem has now become a lot more complicated.

So much so that Dallas Mavericks owner and that dude you see on Shark Tank, Mark Cuban, decided to completely not play the national anthem at all according to ESPN: “Cuban said during an appearance on ESPN’s The Jump that his organization has no problem playing the anthem ‘at all,’ and that the decision to not do so to this point in the season was the product of ongoing conversations with members of the community who felt the tradition ‘did not fully represent them.'”

Cuban also per ESPN “told ESPN that he had made the decision to stop playing the national anthem before home games after consulting with NBA commissioner Adam Silver. The Mavericks did not announce the change in policy, but the national anthem had not been played before any of their 13 preseason and regular-season games at the American Airlines Center this season.”

The league apparently took further notice and decided to reinforce the “longstanding league policy” to have the national anthem before games as fans reinter stands across NBA arenas league-wide.

This causes some mixed responses:

Cuban issued a statement that was released along with Bass’ statement:

“We respect and always have respected the passion people have for the anthem and our country. But we also loudly hear the voices of those who feel that the anthem does not represent them. We feel that their voices need to be respected and heard, because they have not been. Going forward, our hope is that people will take the same passion they have for this issue and apply the same amount of energy to listen to those who feel differently from them. Only then we can move forward and have courageous conversations that move this country forward and find what unites us.”

Mark Cuban, Mavericks owner, statement via the NBA

The National Anthem: “The Star Spangled Banner” before the Super Bowl:

About At The Buzzer

At The Buzzer, or ATB is the place for those who love sports, life, family, community, and so much more. We are far from the run-of-the-mill 24/7 sports news websites. We not only bring you what’s happening in the world of sports in terms of trades and breaking news, but we also bring you the news that goes on behind the scenes, like big life moments, and so much more. So take a minute and read one of our articles, we promise you won't regret it.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *