I volunteer at an awesome senior daycare. We were playing a kind of seated, indoor team tennis the other day. One strident little old lady produced a flag before we started and demanded we all stand for the anthem.“No kneeling!”
“But I can’t stand. Can I sit in my wheelchair?”
“And I can’t kneel, I just got a new knee.”
“No, she said we can’t kneel.”
“Well, I sure can’t, for about eight weeks. It’s so much better than it was though…”
Etc.
“He recommended an address by a player or coach to fans before the anthem, or a video featuring players or community leaders speaking about important issues and showing photos from past community events.”
OK, so we’ll see how it goes . . .
I suggest something along the lines of “we’re doing this because this is all our chicken-shit league suits will let us do.”
Ah, the NBA… the quislings of professional sports!
I suggest a pa announcement stating “Before tonight’s game, the National Anthem will be played in honor of the victims of police brutality in our city and throughout the nation.”
Why don’t they just stop playing the national anthem before games? Nothing but jingoism anyway. They don’t do it anywhere else in the world.
Most of the groups I play in play the SSB once, at the first concert of the season. That’s it. I like it that way.
I wonder if the Pentagon payed for the rule demanding players participate in this bit forced patriotism? I wouldn’t put it past them.
Republican Sens. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) and John McCain (R-AZ) released a statement on an investigation into DOD payments for “patriotic tributes” between 2011 and 2014.
Their statement in part said:
“clearly show that DOD paid for patriotic tributes at professional football, baseball, basketball, hockey, and soccer games. These paid tributes included on-field color guard, enlistment and reenlistment ceremonies, performances of the national anthem, full-field flag details, ceremonial first pitches͕ and puck drops. The National Guard paid teams for the “opportunity” to sponsor military appreciation nights and to recognize its birthday. It paid the Buffalo Bills to sponsor its Salute to the Service game. DOD even paid teams for the “opportunity” to perform surprise welcome home promotions for troops returning from deployments and to recognize wounded warriors. While well intentioned, we wonder just how many of these displays included a disclaimer that these events were in fact sponsored by the DOD at taxpayer expense. Even with that disclosure, it is hard to understand how a team accepting taxpayer funds to sponsor a military appreciation game, or to recognize wounded warriors or returning troops, can be construed as anything other than paid patriotism.”
[source: http://www.kvue.com/news/local/verify/verify-did-the-us-govt-pay-nfl-players-to-stand-for-natl-anthem/478658938]
Excellent!!
The United States Marine Corps Band plays the anthem in less than 90 seconds. Instead of dragging it out to 4 minutes with jets, fireworks and an over-emotive country star, just play the benchmark version, give the players 90 seconds to make a gesture, and start the fucking game a minute sooner. Everyone wins!
It recommends that teams organize internal discussions to hear the players’ perspectives …
What the hell difference does it make? Sounds to me like the NBA’s already made the decision – they don’t give a shit about the players’ perspectives. How patronizing!
But wait, are we still properly bowing down to the great idols of the the flag and the anthem and the sanctity of emails everywhere !!!
I have always been puzzled why we play the anthem before sporting events. Always felt vaguely militaristic or jingoistic to me. But I do stand and do the whole respect thing.
@26degreesrising , you beat me to it!
Does anyone else see the irony here? The commissioner of the NBA, a Jewish-American, in a sport with 25% foreign players, and an overwhelming majority being Black, establishes a rule about the National Anthem that smacks of a Plantation Mentality. Silver should be ashamed of his cowering to the white power structure of the owners, and the fear of alienating the mostly white paying customers. But, wait, this isn’t about race is it.? What bullshit from Trump to Goddell to Silver this reaks of the supremacy of the purse.
My advice to players in all professional sports, stay in the locker room if you wish, and honor the flag and make your statements in your own way. You are not in elementary school anymore.
I dare him to reprimand a superstar like Lebron.
Oh, I suspect playing the Anthem before games dates back way before that. Maybe WWII? Maybe the “In God We Trust” era? I’m actually curious about how & when that tradition started.
The late Queen Mother commented on playing the national anthem at sporting events (which she had to stand for and smile graciously). She wasn’t impressed. her comment?
“It’s a bit like reciting the Lord’s Prayer whilst playing canasta.”
So the “enforced patriotism” is built into NBA contracts in a more direct way than in NFL contracts?
Even as a high school kid in the late 70s, I felt saying The Pledge of Allegiance in school was a hoary and uncomfortable practice.
I guess for a professional NBA contract one must agree to certain rules, but I find this unfortunate. I do not believe the issue will be contained by football, no way. Trump really created a mess he will NEVER contain!