Free Republic

In February, we reported that Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban had stopped playing the national anthem before his team’s games. This has since come back to haunt Cuban, as Texas Republicans have fired back by hitting him right where it hurts – his wallet. Cuban never publicized not playing the national anthem. The news of what he was doing only broke at the time because other teams noticed on their own that “The Star Spangled Banner” never played. Cuban tried to defend himself at the time in a statement to NPR:

As a Chinese immigrant watching my first pro game, it was obvious to me that such pride and patriotism wasn't coerced by the state, but a genuine expression by free people.Mark Cuban, the billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks, recently decided the national anthem would not be played at Mavericks’ home games, citing his desire to listen to voices of “those who feel that the anthem doesn’t represent them.” But to me, a Chinese immigrant, Cuban’s decision did not feel inclusive, but ignorant of what the anthem does represent. I never went to a professional sports event when I was...

White House press secretary Jen Psaki expressed support for Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban’s decision to remove the national anthem from the team’s home games because they “feel [the anthem] doesn’t represent them.”During the Wednesday press briefing, Fox News’s Peter Doocy asked Psaki about the Biden administration’s stance on Cuban’s decision. While the press secretary acknowledged that President Joe Biden is “proud to be an American and has great respect for the anthem,” she also said he would support the Mavericks for calling out the frequent times when “we as a country haven’t lived up to our highest ideals.”“He’d also...

After reportedly confirming to The Athletic that he canceled the national anthem, then having the league step in and order him to play it, Mavericks Owner Mark Cuban has decided that he never canceled the anthem after all. In a Wednesday interview with ESPN’s The Jump, Cuban said that the team was having an ongoing dialogue about the anthem but “probably would have ended up playing it at some point when fans came back.” The only trouble with that is that there were some fans in attendance at American Airlines Arena on Monday night and, just like the other Dallas...

The NBA is requiring that all teams play the national anthem before games "in keeping with longstanding league policy," just one day after Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban told The Athletic the team decided not to play it at home games. NBA Chief Communications Officer Mike Bass released a statement on Wednesday, just a day after Cuban said he had no plans to play the national anthem at any future home games. Fox Bet "With NBA teams now in the process of welcoming back fans into their arenas, all teams will play the national anthem in keeping with longstanding league...

Mark Cuban has canceled the National Anthem before Dallas Mavericks home basketball games. The NBA previously required all teams to play “The Star Spangled Banner” before each game, but now it is at the discretion of owners. And, Cuban sent the song to the chopping block. The change happened a few weeks back, but went unnoticed. The Mavericks began 13 home games without the National Anthem before Cuban was asked about it.

Good for Mark. [cut] “I went to a Rangers game with my brother and we’re standing there [for the anthem] and it felt stupid,” Thomas Wilson said. “It feels like a cult, everyone standing up. The freedom doesn’t stop if we don’t raise the flag. I know that sounds unpatriotic. We know we’re in America. We didn’t forget that. I served for 13 years.”

Haven’t heard about any national anthem protests at Mavericks games? There’s a good reason for that: Dallas isn’t and won’t be playing “The Star-Spangled Banner” anymore. Mark Cuban told The Athletic it was his decision to eliminate the tradition of playing the anthem before games. The move went by unnoticed through the first 13 combined preseason and regular-season games at American Airlines Center because the Mavericks did not publicize it, either within the organization or through an announcement to media. Monday marked the first game in which the Mavericks allowed a limited number of fans into their arena.

It looks Dallas Mavericks’ billionaire owner, Mark Cuban, will take a financial hit this NBA season no matter how many games his team wins. “Am I going to lose a lot of money this year? Yes. No question about it. More than $100 million when this is all said and done? Yes. No question about it,” Cuban said on Monday in an interview with a Dallas sports radio station. The Mavericks are one of many NBA teams likely to open the new season, which starts on Dec. 23, with few or no fans in the stands due to states’ social-distancing...

Monday, Mark Cuban appeared on the Megyn Kelly Show. The NBA owner spun the NBA’s tank-job as hard as he could, discussing the league’s ratings collapse, Black Lives Matter, and the NBA’s relationship with China. As Outkick has written, the 2020 NBA Finals are an historic disaster — with games down as much as 58% year-over-year. Kelly accurately blames the league’s decision to go political for the millions of Americans turning away. “You wear a pink ribbon to support breast cancer is one thing. Putting BLM in the middle of the court when it’s not supported by virtually any Republican...

Sen. Ted Cruz and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban got into it on Twitter on Tuesday morning over the NBA’s “social justice” messaging. Before it was over, Cuban told Cruz: “You are so full of sh*t.”The political kerfuffle began after Cruz tweeted a link to an article about the disastrous ratings of the 2020 NBA Finals. “Not surprising. Personally speaking, this is the first time in years that I haven’t watched a single game in the NBA Finals. #GoWokeGoBroke” Not surprising. Personally speaking, this is the first time in years that I haven’t watched a single game in the NBA...

The off-court scuffle began when Cruz tweeted a link to a news story about sagging TV ratings for the NBA Finals and wrote, “Not surprising. Personally speaking, this is the first time in years that I haven’t watched a single game in the NBA Finals. #GoWokeGoBroke” Cuban chimed in to question the logic of Cruz appearing to cheer for the downfall of a major industry in his own state. “A US Senator with 3 @NBA teams in his state, employing thousands of people and he is rooting for their businesses to do poorly,” wrote Cuban in a retweet of Cruz’s...

A trend of low ratings throughout the NBA postseason has now reached the NBA Finals. And hit it hard. Game 1 of the Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat brought in only 7.41 million viewers to ABC, according to The Hollywood Reporter. That is reportedly the lowest viewership seen for the Finals since at least 1994, when total viewers began to be regularly recorded. The number is down 45 percent from last year’s Game 1

This week's Thursday night episode of Tucker Carlson Tonight on Fox News pulled in more viewers than the highly anticipated Game 4 NBA match between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Denver Nuggets. That game drew 4.6 million viewers, while Carlson's show brought in 140,000 more than that. The comparatively low numbers continue a trend of plummeting viewership in the NBA, the numbers of which are down roughly 40% since the 2018 season and 27% from last year. Some commentators have blamed that drop on the League's increasing politicization, particularly beginning in mid-2020 as more and more players began coming...

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said Wednesday American households should receive two $1,000 stimulus checks per month for the next two months. Cuban first proposed the idea in May and maintained the same notion that “Those without [help] are struggling badly,” he told CNBC. “We need to get them help.” The coronavirus pandemic has brought devastating outcomes to many families struggling to provide for themselves and loved ones as the national unemployment average remained above 10.2 percent from March until recent reports from August show it fell to 8.4 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. "In addition, because this...

Colin Kaepernick is right about one thing—the NFL’s new social justice messaging campaign is best described as “propaganda.” Kaepernick’s dissatisfaction with the league’s explicitly pro-Kaepernick efforts, however, should be a major lesson for other woke capitalists. Absolutely nothing short of dismantling the capitalist system will satisfy their detractors.Corporations can go to great lengths to mollify critics, but those critics will never be pleased because their worldview is ultimately rooted in radical anti-capitalism. Mark Cuban, for instance, should recognize that Kaepernick and the leaders of Black Lives Matter do not see him or Roger Goodell as allies, no matter how...

Despite near-daily efforts to show America how woke they are, or, because of it, the NBA’s playoff ratings are still tanking. “Weekday afternoon games have certainly hurt, but the first weekend of the NBA Playoffs was no ratings bonanza either,” Sports Media Watch reported. Viewership on ABC is down 23 percent and the numbers are down 20 percent overall compared to last year’s playoffs “The Lakers’ win ranks as ABC’s least-watched playoff opener in five years (2015 Pelicans-Warriors: 3.49M), with the caveat that this year marked the first time since 2004 that it did not air a game on the...

by Greg Reynolds A black NBA player reportedly made a shocking racial remark to a white NBA player after a heated confrontation during a game on Friday night while the players were wearing jerseys that had special social justice phrases printed on the back. “LA Clippers forward Montrezl Harrell and Dallas Mavericks Slovenian star Luka Doncic got into a scuffle last night that ended with Harrell calling Doncic a ‘bitchh ass white boy,'” Outkick columnist Gary Sheffield Jr. wrote. “The solution here is simple, even if many won’t like it: the NBA has to suspend Montrezl Harrell and send...

Mark Cuban says critics of the NBA’s Black Lives Matter activism should focus on Fox News’ ratings before the league. The Dallas Mavericks owner says a 4% dip in ratings for the league has far more to do with Joseph R. Biden’s presidential campaign than politicized programming alienating fans. “Lol. You do realize that was the day @JoeBiden picked @KamalaHarris?” the billionaire tweeted at Fox Sports Radio’s Clay Travis on Thursday. “Nothing makes a Fox News viewer want to get lied to more.” Cuban’s comments failed to take into account strong ratings for baseball and hockey despite the coronavirus pandemic....

Mark Cuban told Fox News host Sean Hannity that he will vote for presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden over President Trump in November, arguing that Trump "only wants to run a campaign" while Biden "wants to run a country." The endorsement comes as Biden continues to expand his lead over the incumbent in recent polling, including a New York Times-Sienna College national poll finding the former vice president enjoying a 14-point edge, 50 percent to 36 percent. "Donald Trump doesn't want to run a country. He wants to run a campaign," Cuban told Hannity on Tuesday night. "Joe Biden...