The NBA ended the question of playing the anthem, but the result of Mark Cuban’s social experiment is yet to be seen

Editor’s note: this story has been updated since it was originally published. Last update at 8:15 pm on Wednesday.

To hear Mark Cuban explain it now, the national reaction he triggered, which started out as a low bang and quickly grew to a detonation of debate, positive and negative, was his plan all along.

The decision by Mavericks owner Cuban not to play the Star-Spangled Banner before the Dallas home games was, he says, a kind of social experiment.

How soon would it be noticed? How would people react? The first response came later than he expected, not until the 12th game at Dallas’ home. The reaction began on Tuesday night and as the turmoil approached Wednesday’s crescendo, the NBA issued a blunt statement.

“With NBA teams now in the process of welcoming fans back into their arenas, all teams will be playing the national anthem according to the league’s longstanding policy.”

Only then, the problem was solved. Cuban immediately said that the Mavericks would obey and, sure enough, the Star-Spangled Banner was played before the Dallas game on Wednesday night against Atlanta at the American Airlines Center.

Cuban, however, says he hopes that the discussions he deliberately ignited about racial equality and, yes, patriotism, will last in a constructive way.

“We have no problem playing it,” he told The Dallas Morning News about the anthem. “But we want these very important conversations to continue.”

Cuban, in his 21st season as owner of the Mavericks, never escaped the controversy. From previous experience, including last July, when he declared that the United States’ “national anthem police” was out of control, that this was a flammable matter.

How effective was Cuban’s most recent conversation? During a press conference at the White House on Wednesday afternoon, press secretary Jen Psaki was asked what President Joe Biden thought about Cuba’s decision to stop playing the anthem.

“I didn’t speak to him about Mark Cuban’s decision at the Dallas Mavericks, or I should say the national anthem,” said Psaki. “But I know that he is incredibly proud to be an American and has a great respect for the anthem and everything it stands for, especially for our men and women in uniform, serving around the world.

“He would also say that, of course, part of the pride in our country means recognizing moments when we, as a country, do not live up to our highest ideals, which is often and sometimes what people say when they take action at events sports, and means supporting people’s right, guaranteed by the Constitution, to protest peacefully ”.

Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick joined the fray, announcing that he will present the “StarSpangled Banner Protection Act, Senate Bill 4 as one of his legislative priorities at this session. He said the purpose of the bill would be to ensure that the national anthem is played at all events in Texas that receive public funding.

“It is hard to believe that this could happen in Texas, but Mark Cuban’s actions yesterday made it clear that we must specify that in Texas we will play the national anthem before all major events,” said Patrick in a statement.

“In this time when so many things divide us, sport is something that unites us – right, left, black, white and brown. This legislation is already widely supported. I’m sure this will pass, and the Star Spangled Banner will not be threatened at Lone Star State again. “

Two of the Mavericks’ professional sports brothers in northern Texas, the Dallas Stars and the Texas Rangers, released statements in which they condemned the decision of the Cuban anthem without calling it by name.

In capital letters, the Stars statement called the anthem “a time-honored tradition”, emphasized that the team will continue to play it and added: “As the only National Hockey League team in Texas, we are proud to represent our state and our country. ”

The Rangers called the anthem “an important tradition that we will continue to honor at Globe Life Field”.

It was as if those franchises were going out of their way to disassociate themselves from the Cuban, or at least his decision to hymn.

But, as Cuban emphasized, anyone who believes he is anti-hymn could not be more wrong – and is missing the point of discussion he was trying to raise.

“We respect and always respect the passion that people have for the anthem and for our country,” he said. “But we also hear loudly the voices of those who feel that the hymn does not represent them. We feel that their voices need to be respected and heard, because they were not.

“Our hope is that from now on, people will have the same passion for this issue and apply the same amount of energy to listen to those who feel different from them. So, we can move on and have courageous conversations that move this country and discover what unites us. “

Older Mavericks fans should remember that the team never played the national anthem during the 1980 to 1996 era under the franchise co-founders Don Carter, the main owner; and Norm Sonju, the team president. Instead, God Bless America was played before home games.

The Mavericks started playing the anthem when majority owner Ross Perot Jr. and minority owner Frank Zaccanelli bought the franchise in 1996, and continued to do so after Cuban bought the franchise in 2000.

Meanwhile, NBA rules have changed, requiring the anthem to be played before games and players in the league to remain upright during their presentation.

These regulations were relaxed during the 2019-20 NBA season restart last summer on the Disney World campus bubble scene. After George Floyd’s death while in Minneapolis police custody, and other deaths and injuries to people of color while in custody, NBA players used the bubble scenario in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic as a platform to discuss equality racial and police reform.

When the anthem was played before four months of games and playoffs in the bubble, most players and coaches knelt and generally crossed their arms with the opposing team in solidarity and silent protest.

Cuban said on Wednesday that he believes that many of the efforts of players and coaches fell on deaf ears – or were heard and soon forgotten.

“When you try to create social change, it will never be easy,” he said during an appearance on ESPN’s The Jump. “We saw it all summer. We hear people. Many people tried to defend what they believed and were not really heard.

“These are difficult conversations that will not end, whether or not we play the national anthem.”

Cuban said that as this season approached, he and Mavericks CEO Cynthia Marshall and other franchise leaders discussed the possibility of not playing the anthem.

When the Mavericks played their only preseason game at home on December 17 against Minnesota, in front of no fans as the pandemic intensified, players and coaches from both teams lined up on the court as teams traditionally do to play the hymn.

When no music started, players looked around in bewilderment, shrugged and went back to their respective bench areas.

For one Dallas Morning News reporter at the American Airlines Center to cover the game of the new distance required by the NBA near the top of the bottom bowl, the scene appeared to be a failure. An oversight.

When the regular season home games started, still without fans, no one seemed to notice, or at least publicly point out, the lack of the anthem.

It wasn’t until the home game on Monday against Minnesota – the first with fans, but only about 1,500 frontline workers who were admitted for free – that a reporter for The Athletic noticed the missing anthem and received confirmation Cuban name that was yours. decision.

Unlike that report, however, Cuban said The news on Tuesday night he hadn’t made a decision for the entire season. On Wednesday, he explained that the Mavericks franchise leaders met regularly and discussed the likely eventuality that the team would play the anthem again.

“As the games went on, honestly, we kept talking about what we would do at some point,” he said on The Jump. “But, honestly, it reached a critical point when it was reported that in one of our games we had not played.”

Mavericks players and coaches, of course, were aware that the anthem was not being played. Cuban said The news that the Mavericks also informed visiting teams in advance that there would be no anthem. He said the Mavericks did not receive negative feedback.

In Wednesday night’s game, of course, the whole country knew what the Mavericks were doing and the reaction was coming from all over the country.

“It’s a lively discussion, which is certainly not surprising,” said Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle. “This was Mark’s decision. He was firm about it. He had his reasons. . . It was quite a day. “

The question of playing the anthem is over for the NBA, but the end result of the Cuban social experience will not be known for now.

It depends on how the ongoing conversations unfold.

“I think something like that, whenever you have a result of something like that, you have to embrace it,” Carlisle said. “This is an opportunity for people to look at things differently.

“And, you know, agreeing or disagreeing, we should all agree that, as Americans, we support the right to choose how we express ourselves, and that is another fundamental thing that is very important with that.”

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