While an inordinate amount of attention has been paid to how NFL players behave during the national anthem over the past 14 months, they're so far the only league that has had to deal with the insane amount of fallout from players pre-game protests (see: Colin Kaepernick almost certainly being colluded out of the league, fans claiming they won't tune in anymore, and other ridiculous shit that must make the brass wonder how they can stem the tide of bad publicity).
With that being said, another NBA season resides just around the corner, and it will be interesting to see how or if players around the league decide to protest in some manner, especially after President Trump basically united athletes against him by calling out kneeling players at a senate rally, and also uninviting the Warriors from the White House in a 24-hour period.
Perhaps giving a preview of what to expect, on Monday J.R. Smith stood a few feet behind teammates as the anthem played minutes before the Cavaliers played a scrimmage. While that would seem to be a very minor display of dissent, on Friday he was asked about it, and he explained the reasoning behind his decision.
"I don't feel like the flag represents what it's supposed to at this point," he said on Friday morning, according to Cleveland.com. "We obviously didn't discuss what we were going to do as a team... it's not an easy situation for me with the national anthem.
"Especially coming from where I come from, it's just not. I don't feel like it's represented the right way, obviously it's a tough conversation for everybody, and it still needs to be, I wouldn't say talked about, because there's been a lot of conversations about it, it's time to start doing. What efforts are we going to put towards it?"
Cleveland.com noted that Smith didn't give more specific insight into his decision, though he wasn't pressed to either.
Smith also said that he would continue to lock arms with his teammates, as they did prior to Wednesday's preseason game against the Hawks if "that's what the guys wanted to do."
Interestingly, he started out by saying that he usually stretches in the locker room during the playing of the anthem, and that he's done that for the past two-and-a-half years.
The NBA has had a rule for quite some time now that requires players to stand for the anthem. It's highly likely that the NFL would get major shit for that, which is indicative of the contrasting media coverage those leagues currently get. Anyway, we shall wait and see if any players defy that rule (and what type of punishment, if any, they'll get as a result) once the games start.
