News: Mavs first team to stop playing national anthem.

smh

 

Guess not. That was short-lived. Honestly, this was a controversy the NBA just was unwilling to deal with right now and I don't blame them.

 

I mean if he wanted to be woke he woulda called the Athletic back and told them why he did it. Now its just up for interpretation and people will think whatever they want. Odd cuz usually Cuban is very outspoken. Personally I agree with the people that think it made no sense to be played anyways. Problem is if the Rockets ever did it, their fans would miss more than half cuz the games would start even earlier.

 

There's a lot of bad faith on both sides of the general anthem debate.

But regardless of how we got here, the song in the context of sporting events and how athletes conduct themselves during the song (whether the decision is to stand/kneel/etc) is polarizing and alienating right now. Leaving it out right now is probably the best call overall. Maybe in the future in a different social/political climate there's a good time to have it at games, or something else in its place.

 

Lol, Cuban got his hand slapped, and I’m glad.

 

It's funny that it wasn't an issue until this week despite them doing this all season. No one noticed for nearly 2 months that the Mavericks weren't playing the anthem. That tells you how little anyone actually cares about whether its played or not. It's only when an article got written about it that the NBA felt they had to do something to save face.

 

the anthem is a waste of time at sporting events...it’s just a delay to the start of the game AFAIC

nobody even noticed the Mavs weren’t playing it until recently because no one is at the game or watching the game for the anthem, but I’m sure some will come with their fake outrage

 

How was the public supposed to notice it? The only possible way is if someone brings it up. I guess the NBA could have noticed sooner, but I don’t think it taking two months for someone with a platform to mention it means “people actually don’t care”.

 

With so many players now disrespecting the flag & anthem it's better not to play it at all.

 

That’s exactly what it means. No one gives two sh*** if it’s played or not that’s why there’s no uproar. Fake uproar started now that an article was written lol

 

There’s barely any fans. How can you say nobody cares?

 

I think it's sad that the anthem has become something so political in the US.

As a Canadian I would say that people feel a sense of unity whenever the anthem is played. I don't think anyone really feels like O'Canada or our flag is something political.

 

There are hundreds of people at these games, from media to staffers to family to coaches/players/refs/NBA executives/etc. No one needed a platform to mention - they all have twitter/etc and it would have been noticed by someone. But not one mention of it until this week. The Mavs supposedly cleared this with the NBA too, which is why they didn't care until it got notice yesterday. It's an outrage-generator, but fans regularly just talk or eat through the anthem too and no one thinks anything ofit. The only reason anyone complains is because Colin Kaepernick and now it's become a thing to score some political points. If the article hadn't come out, and fans started going back to games, it's doubtful anyone would have noticed either.

 

Cuban is a ComMiE!1! Go back to CubA.

 

Not to offend anyone here but I didn't pay for league pass to watch the national anthem sang. I don't even buy tickets to watch the Rockets to watch the national anthem. I also really don't care what the Mavs do. I just want them to suck for life.

 

Yes and out of all the fans that were there for the past month of games clearly no one cared or you would have known about it before today right

 

I'm an immigrant and I love the national anthem. It reminds me of when I finally got my American citizenship and how grateful I am to be in this country. I don't mind it being played at large events, sporting events included. That said, this is a free country. Anyone who doesn't want to stand for the anthem, or wants to protest during it, or doesn't want to play it at all like Cuban should be free to do so. America doesn't mandate love for the country or government. Countries that do that tend to not be cool.

 

If Cuban was trying to score woke points he would have publicized the decision. How many people knew about this?

I think this choice was simply motivated by what people on his team wanted. Which is exactly how it should be. Playing the National Anthem to an empty arena before a game involving internationally-diverse players makes very little sense and is not what I would consider to be "patriotism".

 

Honestly, any national anthem serves no other purpose than to be patriotic. Did I go to games to hear it? No. Did I enjoy standing and covering my heart before a game? Yes. Why? because I always have.

Now, because of the media, it has become synonymous with supporting bigotry and hate. Cuban, knowing this, bent over to the people telling him “it didn’t represent them” thus, scoring woke points.

That’s my opinion.

The funny thing is you all are saying nobody cares because nobody posted on Twitter about it before now (Which if they did, would be labeled as fake outrage).

it’s really sad that the new standard for caring is making sure you post on Twitter. I care about a lot of stuff and never post on Twitter.

@Major
@palmsnbananas

 

That's too bad that the anthem has that association. I think the anthem is clearly appropriate in certain contexts, but IMO not sports leagues that have broad participation from non-US players and coaches and a huge international audience. I really just don't see the relevance.

You are saying that his choice to adhere to the wishes of some of his employees or players was to score woke points. Another way to look at it is that the choice to continue to play it in settings where patriotic sentiment is not really relevant is just to earn "patriot points" with a certain type of audience and avoid backlash from ending the practice.