The NBA boycott on Wednesday was joined by other athletes, leagues and teams.
And even for some of the teams that did play their games on Wednesday, the impact of that powerful decision and statement was felt.
The New York Mets were one of the teams that played, and before the eventual 5-4 win over the Miami Marlins, the Mets’ Dominic Smith chose for the first time to kneel during the national anthem.
After the game, he spoke to reporters and tearfully spoke about his decision, being Black in America, and what was going through his head on an extremely emotional day:
Dom Smith on why he took a knee during the national anthem tonight:
"I felt like tonight was the perfect night especially with other teams canceling their games, especially looking at the NBA…I just wanted to make a stand like that and show my support" pic.twitter.com/NQTO6BPxb1
— SNY (@SNYtv) August 27, 2020
"Just to see kinda see this continuously happen…it was a long day for me"
– Dom Smith on his emotions over the past couple of days pic.twitter.com/NsXU0EQsKN
— SNY (@SNYtv) August 27, 2020
"I think the most difficult part is to see people still don't care"
– An emotional Dom Smith describes the most of difficult part of the last few months for him pic.twitter.com/DLyptwKPUp
— SNY (@SNYtv) August 27, 2020
“I think the most difficult part is to see people still don’t care. For this to just continuously happen, it just shows the hate in people’s heart … and that just sucks, you know? Black men in America, it’s not easy, so like I said, I wasn’t there today, but I’ll bounce back, I’ll be fine.”
Smith added he didn’t care if his teammates joined him in kneeling because “it’s not for them.” (WARNING: Some NSFW language ahead.)
"It's not for them so I don't care. That s*** doesn't matter, it's not for them"
– Dom Smith on if he talked with teammates about kneeling for the anthem and if he'd want them to join him moving forward pic.twitter.com/PTvHadr96f
— SNY (@SNYtv) August 27, 2020
