The NBA kicked off its preseason action over the weekend in much the fashion that the NFL brought Week 3 of its season to fans, as players across the league linked arms to unity in the face of, the oppression that Colin Kaepernick began demonstrating against a year ago, divisive rhetoric spewed against athletes by President Trump, and more specifically in the case of basketball, his disinviting of Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors to the White House last week. But ironically, as the Denver Nuggets stood elbow in elbow with one another, the Warriors stood across from them in relative neutrality.
This past week commissioner Adam Silver sent a memo to teams, asking that players be mindful of the league's policy that all stand during the playing of the nation's anthem. While there hasn't been much of any backlash against the memo, the Lakers and the Timberwolves were two other teams that locked arms in a show of solidarity with demonstrators in the NFL. Considering Trump has proven to possess a knack for galvanizing dissent, many are expecting that more and more teams will stage protests throughout the NBA, at least for the duration of the preseason and perhaps even through the early weeks of the season.
When asked why Golden State had decided against linking arms, forward Draymond Green responded by essentially posing that the team has already made their case. "We said what we had to say. Everybody knows we don't need to do anything else to show where we stand. Everyone knows where we stand," Green told reporters late Saturday, September 30. "People make what they want out of it. It's at a point now where everyone knows where the conversation started. It's about capitalizing on that and making things better. [Kaepernick] made the statement a year ago. I don't knock anybody for doing what they want to do or what they feel they need to do. But the conversation started at this point."
