I'm curious to see what the NBA commissioner does if players do choose to sit during the national anthem. Silver made a point of reminding everyone there's a league rule that you have to stand. I could see some players taking that as a challenge, Silver throwing down the gauntlet. If they choose to sit during the game before a big televised showdown, will Silver risk suspending them for that game and hurting the ratings, and risk pissing off the owners and TV execs?
Also seems kind of bizarre to enforce it, given the NBA is full of players from other countries. Suspending, say, Dirk Nowitzki for not standing for our anthem is ridiculous. It's not his anthem, and it isn't as though we play the German national anthem for him. This isn't the Olympics. I assume the rule was put in place with agreement between the league and the players' union, the latter of which Nowitzki is a member, but it still seems strange.
And considering Silver went on to speak about being concerned over the deep divisions in the country, it seems an odd approach. He's was fairly polite about - although I get the impression Silver is publicly fairly polite about most things - but it would still seem to emphasize that he's the boss. He's the Commish. Which I can't imagine sparks a lot of warm feelings among the players. I've never appreciated it when bosses pull that stuff, those little power plays. Especially when you're doing your job just fine and they have more important things they could be focused on.
I'm sure Silver is hoping it doesn't become an issue. The players adopt some other approach, opt not to call his bluff. He gets to say he did something, like their recent reform of the draft, which will not actually stop tanking from taking place (as long as the best odds of getting a high draft pick go to the teams with the worst records, that'll be the case). Or trying to get teams to stop keeping players out of big games for "rest". Which merely forces the teams to concoct some bullshit injury which will magically vanish by the following game. But it gives the appearance the issue was addressed.
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I am still not exactly sure WHY we play the National Anthem at so many sporting events. It seems a bit trivial... are we really hitting or bouncing r catching that ball for God and Country?
I don't know. I had never really thought about it until recently. It was just, you go the game, they play the anthem, you stand, then the game starts. that was just how things were, but I guess that isn't typical in other countries?
I imagine there'd be a whole lot of yelling if some team declared they weren't going to play the anthem before games any more.
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