NBA requires Dallas Mavericks to play national anthem, implementing previously unenforced policy; Texas makes it a law

In November 2020, with permission from the National Basketball Association (NBA), Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban instructed the team to stop playing “The Star-Spangled Banner” before its home games during the 2020-21 season. On Feb. 10, 2021, a day after a report highlighted that the Mavericks were not playing the anthem, the NBA reversed course and announced it would enforce its rule requiring teams to play the anthem before home games. The Mavericks immediately complied with the policy.

Key Players

Mark Cuban is a billionaire entrepreneur and owner of the Dallas Mavericks. He has been vocal about social justice issues in the NBA, such as when he rhetorically asked Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), “since when is a desire to end racism an insult to anyone or political?”

Adam Silver is the commissioner of the NBA, a position he has held since 2014.

Further Details

More than four months after the indefinite suspension of the NBA season on March 11, 2020, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, games resumed on July 30 at Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, where teams lived and played in an isolated complex known as the bubble, according to ESPN.

In the last three months of the season — all of which took place in the bubble — most players and coaches regularly knelt during the national anthem to protest social injustice and systemic racism, according to The New York Times. During this period, Silver chose not to enforce a league rule requiring players to stand for the national anthem, which has existed since the 1980s.

In December 2020, Silver announced that the rule would also not be strictly enforced during the 2020-21 season. The NBA also permitted players to “run their pregame operations as they see fit” because of the “unique circumstances” of the season, The Times reported.

“I recognize that this is a very emotional issue on both sides of the equation in America right now, and I think it calls for real engagement rather than rule enforcement,” Silver said.

With this increased freedom, the Mavericks chose not to play the national anthem before any of their first 13 preseason and regular-season home games, at Cuban’s direction, according to The Times. This change went virtually unnoticed until The Athletic published an article pointing it out on Feb. 9, 2021, after the Mavericks’ first game of the regular season, with a limited number of fans in attendance.

This incident follows other controversies related to the national anthem at sporting events. In 2016, former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick knelt during the national anthem, igniting fierce debates about athletes’ political responsibilities and systemic racism in the United States. In 2017, a Louisiana high school imposed sanctions on students who protested during the national anthem.

Outcome

League begins enforcing rule requiring teams to play the anthem before home games; Mavericks comply

On Feb. 10, 2021, the NBA announced it would once again enforce its rule requiring teams to play the national anthem before home games, according to ESPN.

“With NBA teams now in the process of welcoming fans back into their arenas, all teams will play the national anthem in keeping with longstanding league policy,” NBA Chief Communications Officer Mike Bass said.

Cuban said the Mavericks would follow the policy immediately and would play the anthem before the team’s nationally televised game against the Atlanta Hawks the same night, according to The Times. The team used a recorded instrumental version of the anthem, ESPN said.

“We are good with it,” Cuban said about playing the anthem. “We respect and always have respected the passion people have for the anthem and our country. I have always stood for the anthem with the hand over my heart — no matter where I hear it played. But we also hear the voices of those who do not feel the anthem represents them. We feel they also need to be respected and heard, because they have not been heard,” Cuban added in a statement released through the Mavericks.

Texas Legislature passes bill requiring all sports events that receive public funding to play the national anthem

On the same day the NBA reinstated its rule, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) announced that “The Star Spangled Banner Protection Act” would be one of his top priorities this legislative session, according to The Texas Tribune. The bill decrees that the Texas government can only “enter into an agreement” with a professional sports team that requires funding if the team provides written verification that it will play the national anthem before games held at the team’s home venue.

“It is hard to believe this could happen in Texas, but Mark Cuban’s actions of yesterday made it clear that we must specify that in Texas we play the national anthem before all major events,” Patrick said in a statement.

Some Republican state lawmakers sided with Patrick and tweeted criticisms of Cuban. “It’s time that Cuban’s special Texas tax breaks comes to an end,” State Sen. Drew Springer (R) tweeted that day. Then he introduced a bill targeting what he called a loophole in taxes paid by professional sports organizations, according to The Texas Tribune.

“The stadiums, subsidized by the taxpayers, which host the Mavericks should either condemn @mcuban’s anti-American decisions and override him; or, return all tax subsidies they have received,” State Rep. Dustin Burrows (R) added in a tweet.

Amy Kristin Sanders, an attorney and professor of media law at the University of Texas at Austin, noted the legislation is very likely unconstitutional, according to Law & Crime, a legal news website run by ABC News’ chief legal correspondent Dan Abrams.

“Patrick’s proposal that the Texas Legislature pass a state law requiring the national anthem be played represents state action. As a part of its speech protections, the First Amendment also bars state actors from compelling others to speak — and requiring someone to play the national anthem is just that. Under our current jurisprudence, his proposal is clearly unconstitutional and would violate folks’ right to free speech,” Sanders wrote in an email to Law & Crime.

Patrick signed the bill — which passed overwhelmingly in both the Texas Senate on April 8, 2021, and in the Texas House of Representatives on May 25 — on June 16. The law was to take effect on Sept. 1, 2021, according to the legislature’s website.