Rick Carlisle isn’t sure what to expect from players during the national anthem when the NBA season resumes in empty arenas in Florida.
The Dallas Mavericks coach does know how he will react if players kneel or otherwise violate a longtime league policy that requires them to stand during the playing of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
“We support our players 100% in terms of their ability to express themselves individually or as a group if they wish,” Carlisle said. “I don’t know exactly what it’s going to look like in Orlando. There could be different forms of expression. But our country is a free country.”
The death of George Floyd in the custody of Minneapolis police on May 25 sparked fresh questions across sports about kneeling during the anthem, and the gesture has been seen from European soccer to North American auto racing. Colin Kaepernick started the latest movement when he was a San Francisco 49ers quarterback in 2016, saying he was protesting racial inequality and police mistreatment of minorities.
Since sports resumed after Floyd’s death, players have knelt worldwide, at professional and even youth sporting events. And NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has said the league was wrong not to acknowledge the right of its players to peacefully protest, a move that perhaps prompted new criticism from U.S. President Donald Trump, who has long opposed kneeling during the anthem.