FORT WORTH, Texas — The Dallas Mavericks not playing the national anthem at its home games drew sharp backlash from Texas officials including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.
"(Mark Cuban) Your decision to cancel our National Anthem at (Dallas Mavericks) games is a slap in the face to every American & an embarrassment to Texas," Patrick said in a Wednesday tweet. "Sell the franchise & some Texas Patriots will buy it. We ARE the land of free & the home of the brave."
The NBA team hasn't played the anthem at the start of any of its 13 preseason and regular-season games. The decision went unnoticed until reported by The Athletic Tuesday night.
North Texas Sen. Drew Springer took issue with the move and said related legislation could be coming.
"It's time that Cuban's special Texas tax breaks comes to an end," Springer said on Twitter. "No one in (Senate District 30) gets special treatment, why should he? We can use it to lower property taxes. Be watching (Texas Legislature) bills today."
The NBA on Wednesday issued a statement saying the anthem would be played at its teams' games.
"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.
The announcement was cheered by Patrick, who thanked the NBA for "slapping down (Cuban's) crazy idea to cancel the National Anthem."
"Fans of all stripes, liberal and conservative, black, white, brown all love this country and they stand for the Stars and Stripes!" Patrick said on Twitter.
The team will start playing the national anthem at the start of games, including at its home game against the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday, according to The Athletic. Mavericks spokesperson Scott Tomlin confirmed to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that the anthem would be played.
Asked about the elected officials' remarks, Tomlin pointed to a Wednesday statement from Cuban.
"We respect and always have respected the passion people have for the anthem and our country," Cuban said. "But we also loudly hear the voices of those who feel that the anthem does not represent them. We feel that their voices need to be respected and heard, because they have not been. Going forward, our hope is that people will take the same passion they have for this issue and apply the same amount of energy to listen to those who feel differently from them. Only then we can move forward and have courageous conversations that move this country forward and find what unites us."
