Photo by Danny Fulgencio
The NBA said in a statement all teams will play the national anthem before games, according to a report by the Dallas Morning News.
“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 in a statement.
This comes after Preston Hollow neighbor and Mavericks owner Mark Cuban told The Athletic earlier this week that the organization had not played “The Star-Spangled Banner” before any of the 13 home games this season and did not have plans to do so as the season progresses.
In an email to the Morning News, Cuban said he had only confirmed the song had not been played, but not that the organization had decided not to play it in the future.
“And we will be playing the anthem tonight and going forward,” Cuban wrote in the email. “As you know, we never said we wouldn’t. We just confirmed that we had not played it up to that point. We were still discussing what came next. We have no problem with playing it. But we do want these very important conversations to continue.”
The Mavericks will take on the Atlanta Hawks today at home. Tipoff is set for 6:30 p.m.
