Following the setback because he did not play the national anthem before games, Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, said he did not ‘cancel’ the song that has become the subject of social protests over the past year, as he has been an important part of sporting events since the First World War.
Cuban told ESPN’s “The Jump” that the team was constantly in talks about whether to play “The Star Spangled Banner,” but that “we would probably play at some point when fans return.”
However, the national anthem was not played in Dallas’ arena on Monday night, when some fans were invited to watch the game in person for the first time this season.
Up to that point, it had not been documented that Cubans had told the team before the season to stop playing “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the American Airlines Center.
The NBA said on Wednesday that all teams are required to play the national anthem.
The Mavericks played the national anthem before Wednesday’s game and it looks like all players are standing. Several fans cheered afterwards.
“We did not cancel the national anthem,” Cuban told ESPN before releasing it. “We still proudly waved our flag on the wall at the American Airlines Center and everyone had the opportunity to address it and pray for it or say hello to it or whatever they feel.”
The 62-year-old Pittsburgh native added that ‘there are quite a few people expressing their concerns while listening to the community, and that they fear that the national anthem does not fully represent them, and that their voice is not heard does not become. ”
In recent years, the NBA has refused to enforce a rule that players must stand for the national anthem, following athletes in all sports kneeling in it in protest against social injustices.
Cubans were not the first to try to cut off the national anthem. In 1954, Arthur Ehlers, then general manager of the Baltimore Orioles, stopped playing it before every game because “it makes the song cheaper and reduces the excitement of reaction,” he told The Washington Post.
Ehlers later conceded.