Posted on 02/11/2021 5:13:49 AM PST by EyesOfTX
Wednesday was a no good, terrible, very bad day for Mark Cuban, the Dallas Mavericks, and the China-hugging creeps at the NBA. – The self-styled social justice warrior, ChiCom-hugging owner of the NBA franchise in Dallas made news late Tuesday when he confirmed to a reporter that the team was no longer playing the Star Spangled Banner at its home games at his personal direction. That news burst into the headlines and across social media, as outraged fans and enemies of the team and owner alike expressed their anger about the decision.
From a story at DailyWire:
Cuban confirmed to Cato that he was the one who decided the Mavs should pull the anthem.
“None of 13 preseason and regular-season games played at the American Airlines Center this season have featured the anthem before the game, including Monday’s game against the Minnesota Timberwolves, the first played this season with a limited amount of fans in attendance,” Cato reported Monday. “The Mavericks did not publicize the anthem’s removal, and The Athletic was the first media organization to reach out about the change after noticing its absence on Monday. Multiple team employees described only noticing the anthem’s removal on their own, as it was also not announced or explained internally.”
[End]
Note the statement from Cuban confirming that he was the one who made the decision.
The Dallas Stars NHL hockey team, which also plays in and co-owns the America Airlines Center where the Mavericks play and doesn’t want to be stained by Cuban’s stupidity and lack of patriotism, jumped in to assure their fans that they were not only continuing to play the anthem, but were proud to be Americans, unlike Cuban, many of his players, and most involved with the NBA, in fact.
Good for them. Makes me want to go watch a hockey game.
The NBA itself obviously quickly realized the potential damage Cuban’s actions could do to the entire league, which has already suffered tremendous reputational harm by allowing players to kneel while the anthem is being played. Its PR team got into action early in the afternoon with the release of a self-serving statement, because of course it did. That statement mandates that all NBA teams will continue playing the anthem “in keeping with longstanding league policy.”:
That policy may be “longstanding” but it obviously does not include the players standing, right? Right.
Cuban, fully chastened and humiliated by Dallas’s hockey franchise and the NBA, then went on ESPN to do an interview in which he claimed it was all a misunderstanding and that he never had any plans to permanently ban the playing of the national anthem. He further claimed that he and his management “always understood” that they would eventually start playing the anthem again.
From a story at ESPN:
In the wake of the NBA’s statement Wednesday reiterating its long-standing policy that “all teams will play the national anthem,” Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said during an appearance on ESPN’s The Jump that his organization has no problem playing the anthem “at all,” and that the decision to not do so to this point in the season was the product of ongoing conversations with members of the community who felt the tradition “did not fully represent them.”
Cuban on Tuesday had told ESPN that he had made the decision to stop playing the national anthem before home games after consulting with NBA commissioner Adam Silver. The Mavericks did not announce the change in policy, but the national anthem had not been played before any of their 13 preseason and regular-season games at the American Airlines Center this season.
“We’re always talking to our community. That’s something [Mavericks CEO Cynthia Marshall] stands for and is very insistent upon and has become a core part of who we are at the Dallas Mavericks,” Cuban told ESPN’s Rachel Nichols on Wednesday. “In listening to the community, there were quite a few people who voiced their concerns, really their fears that the national anthem did not fully represent them, that their voices were not being heard. So we’ve had a lot of conversations about whether or not we should play the anthem. And so during the first preseason game, we decided to not play it and just see what the response was, knowing that we were going to have ongoing conversations about it. We didn’t make any decision to never play the national anthem then — that wasn’t the case at all. We didn’t cancel the national anthem. We still had our flag flying proud up on the wall at the American Airlines Center and everybody had the opportunity to address it and pray to it or salute to it or whatever their feelings are.”
Cuban added that the organization had always discussed the fact that it would probably resume the playing of the anthem at some point, likely when fans were allowed back in the arena. The Mavericks did not have fans for their first 10 regular-season games before allowing 1,500 vaccinated essential workers to attend Monday’s game against Minnesota for free.
“There was never any final decision that was made that we would not play the anthem,” Cuban said.
[End]
Note this specific sentence: “We still had our flag flying proud up on the wall at the American Airlines Center and everybody had the opportunity to address it and pray to it or salute to it or whatever their feelings are.” This is the sentence that betrays Cuban’s real feelings on the matter. Only an unpatriotic clown would imply that any true American actually prays to the flag. The flag is not a religious symbol: it is a symbol of the country. If you don’t understand that distinction and why it is important, then you are a fool.
Also note that Cuban does not fully own the American Airlines Center: that is a joint ownership between the Mavericks and the Stars. He doesn’t get to decide whether or not to display the American flag, rendering that statement meaningless.
If you believe a word of what Cuban says there, you are what one of my former bosses would refer to as a “very credulous individual.” There can be little doubt that Mark Cuban’s true feelings on the matter were expressed when he banned the national anthem from being played in the arena.
For the record, I haven’t watched a full NBA game for a least 15 years now. But, as a friend told me yesterday, this is almost enough to make me wish I was still a fan so I could quit watching again.
That is all.
“...did not publicize the anthem’s removal...”
Well, you don’t want to talk about the things you are ashamed of do you?
I see what you did there!
Unfortunately that azzhole is from Pittsburgh, my beloved home town.
But he’s from Mt. Lebanon, a ultra-snooty, rich liberal township.
In Pittsburgh we call them jag-offs.
“In listening to the community”
Pretty sure I know which community he’s listening to.
“the product of ongoing conversations with members of the community who felt the tradition “did not fully represent them.”
““We’re always talking to our community. That’s something [Mavericks CEO Cynthia Marshall] stands for and is very insistent upon and has become a core part of who we are at the Dallas Mavericks,” Cuban told ESPN’s Rachel Nichols on Wednesday.”
““In listening to the community, there were quite a few people who voiced their concerns, really their fears that the national anthem did not fully represent them, that their voices were not being heard. So we’ve had a lot of conversations about whether or not we should play the anthem. “
The story never seems to identify this mysterious “community.” Very odd.
“He further claimed that he and his management “always understood” that they would eventually start playing the anthem again.”
...sorta like temporary tolls and taxes?
He is your typical human debris it appears.
Did Cuban get anything out of this stand? A BLM free agent agreeing to sign with the Mavericks? A show of support from the usual suspects at ESPN? Or was it just a ‘premature” stand that will make it easier for the next team to do the same thing...then another, and eventually all of them?
Two things, first:
“The flag is not a religious symbol: it is a symbol of the country. If you don’t understand that distinction and why it is important, then you are a fool.”
He doesn’t go far enough. the flag represents the people with the courage and desire to make the greatest country ever in existence. And it waves above the graves of those that defended it and gave this country a chance to exist.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfzJ8UBr-c0
wy69
Cuban, the narcissist, should put himself on suicide watch.
He has lost all friends and gained innumerable enemies.
Take all weapons away.
Cuban has been on my ban list for years. Never understood why so many like him.
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