This article has been updated.
All players, coaches and referees knelt during the national anthem before the Mavericks faced the Rockets on Friday night in their first game post-coronavirus hiatus.
The actions, in protest of racial injustice and police brutality, followed a league-wide trend.
Since Thursday night, when Jazz and Pelicans played the NBA’s first seeding game in the Disney World bubble, most every individual on the court during each game has knelt during the anthem, locking arms, alongside where “Black Lives Matter” is printed on the court.
As pushes for social justice have ignited throughout the U.S. this summer, the NBA has encouraged players and coaches to speak out against inequality. Commissioner Adam Silver has said the league won’t enforce its longtime rule that requires all participants to stand during the national anthem.
“It was breathtaking,” Mavericks guard Tim Hardaway Jr. said. “It was a moment that was very heartfelt, and I’m happy that both teams came together and the NBA has come together and [is] using this platform to voice our opinions and make sure the world can hear us.”
— Brad Townsend (@townbrad) August 1, 2020
Every player wore black T-Shirts with “BLACK LIVES MATTER” printed across the front before the game. Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle, the National Basketball Coaches Association President, also wore a pin on his polo in reference to the group’s NBA Coaches for Racial Justice collaboration.
All Mavericks players on Friday night wore jerseys with “Equality” in place of their last names with four players spelling “Equality” in their native languages: Luka Doncic (”Enakopravnost” in Slovenian), Maxi Kleber (”Gleichberechtigung” in German), J.J. Barea (”Igualdad” in Spanish), and Kristaps Porzingis (”Vienlidziba” in Latvian).
The Mavericks were the only team among the NBA’s 30 to have every player display the same message, a decision the team made on a Zoom video call Dwight Powell led before the team left Dallas, ESPN courtside reporter Rachel Nichols said.
“They wanted to send a message that for them, it was all about equality and fairness,” Nichols said on in the first quarter of ESPN’s broadcast. “Not just here in America, but internationally as well because they do have such an international flavor to this team.”
Carlisle, who has started each of his press conferences since arriving in the bubble by reading passages from the Equal Justice Initiative calendar, has said the Mavericks will make decisions about potential demonstrations together.
“Pursuing social justice is so important,” ESPN commentator Doris Burke said on the broadcast before the opening tip. “They’re going to leverage their standing in their community, and how powerful it has been to watch all 30 head coaches join in equal measure.”
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