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    U.S. Open Stars Fall at Indian Wells, Which Struggles to Draw a Crowd

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    The tournament, the first major sporting event canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020, was moved to October for its return, but attendance is down by half and atmosphere is lacking.INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — With no teenagers and no Daniil Medvedev left in the draw, this tournament will definitely not be a repeat of the U.S. Open.Medvedev, so cool and pressure-proof on his way to his first Grand Slam title last month in New York, looked ready to keep rolling on Wednesday at the BNP Paribas Open.He led Grigor Dimitrov by a set and two breaks of serve in the round of 16. But tennis remains an unpredictable game, and the top-seeded Medvedev proceeded to lose his way in the desert sunshine as Dimitrov, playing patiently and boldly at just the right times, reeled off wins in eight straight games and then held firm to finish off the upset, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.“Impossible until possible, I guess,” Dimitrov said in a television interview.But if this is not the U.S. Open, it is not truly the Indian Wells tournament, either. That event, usually held annually in March, has grown in size and stature under its free-spending owner, Larry Ellison, becoming the most popular and prestigious tour stop after the four Grand Slam tournaments and the year-end tour finals.In 2019, 475,000 spectators came to the Indian Wells Tennis Garden during the event’s nearly two-week run, filling up the stadium courts and the upscale restaurants that overlook them. In recent years, the tournament generated an estimated annual economic impact of over $400 million in the greater Palm Springs region.But in March 2020, it became the first major international sports event to be canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. The decision, which was ultimately Ellison’s call, turned out to be the correct one. Though there were skeptics when the move was announced just ahead of the qualifying tournament, other leagues and events soon followed as the scope and threat of the pandemic became clearer.“We thought they were nuts at first for calling it off,” Krystal Meier, a longtime fan and tournament attendee from Long Beach, said in an interview last week. “How could anybody have known what was coming?”This year, the BNP Paribas Open was moved from March to October, and though the prize money is roughly the same as in 2019, the star power and atmosphere are not.The tournament was moved from March to October, and attendance is down from 2019, the last year it was played.Clive Brunskill/Getty ImagesAccording to tournament officials, attendance is on track to be about half of what it was in 2019. The change in date is certainly a factor. Many seasonal residents have yet to arrive in the area, and regulars who made March attendance a tradition were clearly not ready to embrace October.The decision to require vaccination of all spectators may have limited the overall numbers while reassuring some fans. “When we saw everybody was going to be vaccinated, we definitely felt better about coming,” Meier said.But there is still underlying concern about attending mass events and traveling too far from home. More than 87 percent of the spectators in 2019 were from outside the Palm Springs area.Another reason for the smaller crowds is surely the changing of the guard in tennis. The tournament is missing the two biggest stars in the women’s game (Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka) and the three biggest stars in the men’s game (Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic).Federer, 40, and Nadal, 35, are recovering from injuries, and they announced the end of their 2020 seasons in August. Djokovic, 34, is resting and recovering after losing to Medvedev in straight sets in last month’s U.S. Open final, a defeat that stopped him just short of becoming the first man to complete a Grand Slam in singles since Rod Laver in 1969.Dominic Thiem, who won the men’s title here in 2019, is also out with an injury. He, like the other high-profile absentees, still has a presence in Indian Wells. In a nod to the obvious, tournament organizers have put life-size images of all of them on a wall behind Stadium 2 featuring the words “We miss you.” It has become a magnet during the event, with fans posing for photographs next to the photographs.Posing next to flesh-and-blood players has been much trickier because of the pandemic restrictions, which have meant a ban on official autograph sessions. (Informal signings have still taken place.)None of the women’s singles quarterfinalists in New York reached the quarterfinals here, with the surprise Open champion Emma Raducanu losing in her opening match to the 100th-ranked Aliaksandra Sasnovich. Emma Raducanu, the U.S. Open champion, lost in her opening-round match at Indian Wells.Ray Acevedo/EPA, via ShutterstockThe far more experienced Medvedev fared better with his bedeviling blend of offense and defense, and he fared very well against Dimitrov until he took a 4-1 lead in the second set.But Dimitrov, the Bulgarian who is seeded No. 23, was opportunistic enough to change the momentum. At 30, he has yet to reach the heights that have seemed his destiny, given his stylish, all-court game. But he remains a dangerous opponent, and after showing flashes of fine form at the San Diego Open the week before Indian Wells, he lifted his game on Wednesday as Medvedev’s dropped.“He definitely flipped the switch,” Medvedev said. “It’s not that I started missing everything and like really playing bad. I still maintained some level, if we can call it like this. In so many matches, it would be enough to finish the match.”Once in the rallies, Dimitrov almost exclusively sliced his single-handed backhand down the stretch and waited — and waited — to take big risks with his forehand. Most of them paid off in the final set, and he took a 5-1 lead as Medvedev expressed displeasure in rare fashion by breaking a racket between his first and second serves (he double faulted) and going on to lose his serve for the sixth time.“That shows how slow this court is, and the conditions are more like clay, I would say, which I don’t like,” Medvedev said.Dimitrov soon lost his serve, too, as he tried to finish off the upset at 5-1, but he did not falter at 5-3, holding at love and thrusting both arms into the air.Though the sky above him was typical Indian Wells — clear and azure — what was happening back on earth remained anything but business as usual. More

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      Putting the ‘Open’ Back Into the U.S. Open

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      The Grand Slam tournament that signals the end of summer in New York welcomes fans who have been vaccinated against Covid-19 to pack the house when the main draw begins Monday.It has been two years since tennis fans queued for $25 lobster rolls at the United States Open, 24 long months since tipsy spectators could shout from the upper deck of Arthur Ashe Stadium during rowdy night sessions.But starting on Monday, the U.S. Open will pulsate with fans again, proceeding close to normal with people packing the stands and spending at the concession stands as if it were 2019 all over again.But just as New York has sputtered toward a frustrating and uneven reopening due primarily to the highly contagious Delta variant, New York’s signature two-week summer sporting event returns with full spectator capacity, amid a mixture of hope and anxiety.City leaders expressed shock and concern that the tournament in Flushing Meadows was initially prepared to allow roughly 55,000 people per day to enter the grounds with almost no protections against the coronavirus. But players generally seemed delighted that, unlike last year when no fans were allowed to watch in person, throngs of tennis enthusiasts will be back on hand with all their famous New York zest and vigor.“I’m just happy there’s a crowd in general,” said Naomi Osaka, who won last year’s women’s singles title inside a ghostly empty and echoing Arthur Ashe Stadium.But the crowds will now be required to show proof of vaccination after a hasty retreat on policy by the United States Tennis Association late last week. It was the first, but likely not the last, hiccup for New York’s annual curtain call for summer — a highly attended, two-week tennis festival that straddles Labor Day and by the end signals the first cool hints of fall.On Wednesday, five days before fans were expected to arrive en masse, tournament officials announced that no proof of vaccination or recent negative coronavirus test would be required for fans entering the grounds, and there would be almost no mask mandates.The announcement stunned and alarmed city officials, including Mayor Bill de Blasio, who pressured tournament officials to beef up the restrictions. After a series of discussions over the next two days, the U.S. Open announced that all fans would need to provide proof of at least one Covid vaccine shot.Although it would have been better to make the decision weeks ago to give ticket holders fair warning, the announcement still pleased the tournament’s early critics, like Mark Levine, a City Council member from Manhattan who chairs the health committee and condemned the tournament’s initial lax coronavirus protocols as a dangerous health risk.“Now we can get back to enjoying great tennis without worrying that there will be a superspreader event,” he said.But while the fans are finally back, many top players will not be. Serena Williams, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Venus Williams, Stan Wawrinka and Dominic Thiem, last year’s men’s champion, are skipping the tournament because of various injuries. Together, they have won 19 of the last 42 U.S. Open singles titles.Novak Djokovic has won another three. If he raises the trophy in two weeks, he will become the first player since Steffi Graf in 1988 to win the Grand Slam — all four major tournaments in the same calendar year — and the first man since Rod Laver in 1969.Djokovic’s quest will be the primary tennis theme of the tournament, as long as he doesn’t get disqualified for testing positive for the coronavirus, or some other reason. Last year, Djokovic was tossed from the tournament in the fourth round after he hit a ball in frustration off his racket and it struck a line judge.Since that ignominious exit he has won the Australian Open, the French Open and Wimbledon, and although he lost at the recent Olympics, he is the strong favorite to make this U.S. Open memorable for something other than the coronavirus and a somewhat hectic reopening.“I know how big of an opportunity is in front of me here in New York where historically I’ve played really well over the years,” Djokovic said. “It’s probably the most entertaining tennis court that we have and the crowd will be back in the stadium.”Unlike the fans, the players are not required to be vaccinated. But they will be tested upon arrival and every four days after that. If they test positive, they must withdraw. And any unvaccinated player who is in close contact with someone who is found to have contracted the coronavirus will have to isolate for 10 days, thus ending their tournament, too. So, fans who come to see a favorite player might go home disappointed if that player, or their opponent, is forced to pull out.But several players noted that the presence of fans has a clear impact on play, whether intimidating or motivational.“I played a lot of brutal matches here over the years,” said Andy Murray, the 2012 champion. “The crowd always helped. They like people that fight, give their all, show their heart and emotion and energy and stuff on the court.”Those attending should see things as close to normal as they were in 2019, the last time spectators were permitted. The concession stands, restaurants, bars and shops will be open and fans can mill about freely — unlike last year when a smattering of devotees tried to absorb some of the feel of the tournament from outside the gates.Last year Dominic Thiem beat Alexander Zverev in the men’s final in a mostly empty stadium.Jason Szenes/EPA, via ShutterstockBut some experts remain concerned about the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus, including Charles Branas, a physician and the chair of the epidemiology department at Columbia University’s School of Public Health. Dr. Branas said he is worried about people with only one shot of vaccines that require a double dose. He said they are considered under-vaccinated and do not have the full protective benefit of the vaccine.“I understand this is a big event and a lot of money and jobs are at stake and severe restrictions can be costly,” he said. “But if there is an outbreak at the event, or somewhere else that can be traced back to the event, that has a cost too in a lot of different ways. You have to balance it.”Dr. Branas was also concerned about the roofs and the ventilation of Arthur Ashe and Louis Armstrong stadiums when they are closed. He noted the “three Vs” that experts focus upon regarding the current situation: Vaccinations, the variant and ventilation.“A closed roof, even if there is some opening on the side, is not optimal,” he said.Similarly, Mayor de Blasio had insisted that either a vaccine mandate be imposed for the two stadiums, or the roofs on both would have to remain open, even in rain. The U.S.T.A., which spent more than $150 million on those roofs, was loath to see the costly structures sit idle in wet conditions, gumming up the tournament’s scheduling and frustrating ESPN, the main broadcaster.So it opted for the vaccine solution, and took it even further than the mayor recommended, mandating vaccines for all fans, not just those with tickets to Ashe or Armstrong. The U.S.T.A. exceeded the mayor’s requirements because about 90 percent of ticket buyers this year hold tickets to Ashe, anyway, according to the U.S.T.A., and doing the screening on the outside the grounds was seen as more efficient than doing it inside.Louis Marciani, the founder of the Innovation Institute for Fan Experience, which focuses on the safety and health of fans at sporting events, applauded the tournament’s ultimate protocols, even if they were hastily reconfigured.“We as an organization support their decision because it is based on scientific evidence and local conditions,” he said. “Let’s face it, this might not be such a good idea in a place like Las Vegas that does not have as high a vaccination rate.”Brian Hainline, a physician and a member of the U.S.T.A.’s medical advisory board, said the goal was not to prevent a single infection, but to prevent an outbreak.After that, it’s all about the tennis and the $25 lobster rolls, the end of summer and the whisper of autumn in New York. And maybe a Grand Slam, too. More

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      New Study Finds Covid Spikes After N.F.L. Games With Fans

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      As the N.F.L. makes plans to return to stadiums at full capacity this season, researchers published findings that “fan attendance at N.F.L. games led to episodic spikes” in the number of Covid-19 cases.Major League Baseball, the N.B.A. and other sports leagues have started to let fans back into their stadiums and arenas, with most teams limiting attendance to 10 to 20 percent of capacity, but some allowing more. The N.F.L. has even grander plans. Last week, Commissioner Roger Goodell said the league hoped to open all of its stadiums at full capacity when the season kicked off in September.“All of us in the N.F.L. want to see every one of our fans back,” Goodell said in a conference call with reporters.Yet new research submitted to The Lancet, a scientific journal, in late March suggested that there was a link between the games that had large numbers of fans in the stands and an increase in the number of infections in locales near the stadiums. The study, which is being peer reviewed, is one of the most comprehensive attempts to address the potential impact of fans at N.F.L. games.The authors, led by Justin Kurland of the University of Southern Mississippi, used the number of positive cases not just from the counties where the 32 N.F.L. teams play, but also from surrounding counties to track the spread among fans who may have traveled to games from farther away. After adjusting the figures to eliminate potential false positives and days when counties did not report cases, they found surges in infection rates in the second and third weeks following N.F.L. games that were played with more than 5,000 fans in attendance. The study does not prove a causal link between fan attendance and Covid-19 cases, but suggests that there may be a relationship between the two.“The evidence overwhelmingly supports that fan attendance at N.F.L. games led to episodic spikes” in the number of Covid-19 cases, the researchers wrote.Jeff Miller, the N.F.L.’s executive vice president for communications, public affairs and policy, said in an interview that public health officials in cities and states where N.F.L. teams play found no “case clusters” following the 119 games held with fans in attendance. Miller added that a study done by researchers at the M.I.T. Sports Lab, which was unpublished and independent, found no notable increases in Covid-19 infection rates “in the appreciable time frame following the games.” That study also looked at Covid numbers from surrounding counties but compared them to “synthetic” data used as a control group and found little difference between the two sets of numbers.“Obviously, that was heartening,” Miller said. A study by the Florida Department of Health determined that Covid-19 infection rates were “slightly higher” in the Tampa area compared to the rest of Florida in the weeks after the city hosted the Super Bowl in February. Zack Wittman for The New York TimesMiller pointed to a study released by the Florida Department of Health that was not peer reviewed which determined Covid-19 infection rates were “slightly higher” in the Tampa area compared to the rest of Florida in the weeks after the city hosted the Super Bowl in February. A handful of people were infected after attending related N.F.L. events, but the state’s health department found that most transmission of the virus was “likely from private gatherings, in homes, or unofficial events at bars and restaurants.”About 1.2 million fans attended N.F.L. games last season, as owners bet that the games would not inflame the pandemic any further. Teams sanitized their stadiums and asked fans to wear masks and sit away from other groups.More than a dozen N.F.L. teams, including the three franchises in Florida and the two in Texas, hosted games with more than 5,000 spectators during the regular season. The Dallas Cowboys led the league in attendance in 2020, averaging more than 28,000 fans at its home games, followed by the Jacksonville Jaguars (15,919), Tampa Bay Buccaneers (14,483) and Kansas City Chiefs (13,153).Kevin Watler, a spokesman for the Florida Department of Health in Hillsborough County, home to Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium, said contact tracers found “very low numbers” of positive coronavirus tests among people who attended Buccaneers home games during the season, and researchers do not believe those people spread the virus to others.Dr. Rex Archer, the director of health for Kansas City, Mo., said health departments in the region detected no spread of the virus linked to Chiefs home games. The 1,000 or so fans who sat in club seats had to test negative to be allowed to attend, a requirement that prevented up to a dozen people per game from entering the stadium. Bars and restaurants, though, were harder to track because some were shut while others, particularly in neighboring Kansas, were not.“You could have 15,000 socially distanced fans at Arrowhead Stadium, yet some people packed into a bar,” he said.The league cited a separate study preprinted in February that showed that attendance at N.F.L. and college football games last season did not have a “significant” impact on the spread of Covid-19 but only tracked positive cases in counties where those games were held. The research submitted to The Lancet, however, tracked more extensive data from surrounding counties.Positive cases of coronavirus could not solely be traced to N.F.L. games in part because stadiums are not the only place fans gathered. “You could have 15,000 socially distanced fans at Arrowhead Stadium, yet some people packed into a bar” on game days, said Dr. Rex Archer, the director of the health department in Kansas City, Mo.Chase Castor for The New York TimesWhile Goodell is eager to see full stadiums in the fall, John Mara, the president of the Giants, was more measured. His team and the Jets will coordinate with the governor’s office in New Jersey before deciding how many fans can attend games at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford during the 2021 season.“As the vaccines continue to roll out, hopefully the positivity rate will be going down in the coming months,” Mara told reporters last week.In a statement, Miller of the N.F.L. said the league would, as it did last year, follow the recommendations of local, county, state and federal public health officials, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and “continue to uphold with the advice and partnership of medical and public health experts as we look to the 2021 season.”Trying to establish definitive causal links between a single event and a change in infection rates across a large metropolitan area is complicated. The authors of The Lancet study concede that their research only shows that two events — games with fans and increasing positive Covid-19 rates — coincided. Other events like political rallies, the reopening of colleges or holiday travel may have contributed to an increase in infections, especially in states where preventive measures like the wearing of masks were less widely adopted. Infections may have also increased because fans watched games with their friends in living rooms or at bars, gatherings that were beyond the N.F.L.’s control.“The strength of these studies is they are showing something, but the correlations can only point out the possibilities, not the causation,” said Bruce Y. Lee, the executive director of Public Health Informatics Computational and Operations Research at City University of New York School of Public Health. “It’s not just a football game and people go home. There are all these associated activities around the game.”To establish that N.F.L. games caused the spread of the virus, researchers would need contact tracing data on fans who attended games and then tested positive. That information is scarce, though, since many local health departments used their resources to educate the public on preventive measures and increase coronavirus testing. In Duval County, Fla., health officials said they did not study whether fans who attended Jacksonville Jaguars games were infected or whether the team’s home games increased the spread of the virus.In part because not everyone cooperated with contact tracers’ requests, even people who attended N.F.L. games and tested positive had difficulty determining whether they got infected before, during or after the games.Eight residents who tested positive for the virus told contact tracers that they had recently attended Cowboys home games, health officials in Tarrant County, Texas, said in November.Researchers in the study submitted to The Lancet found spikes in the number of positive cases after games that had more than 5,000 in attendance, a reason, they argue, that leagues and event organizers should welcome back customers cautiously.“We are not saying that the N.F.L. shouldn’t have opened up to fans,” said Alex Piquero, a sociologist the University of Miami and a co-author of the study. “But we have to understand the public health implications of opening up.” More

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      Two Players Out of N.B.A. All-Star Game Because of Virus Protocols

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The NBA SeasonVirus Hotspots in the N.B.A.LeBron and Anthony DavisThe N.B.A. Wanted HerMissing Klay ThompsonKobe the #GirlDadAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyTwo Players Out of N.B.A. All-Star Game Because of Virus ProtocolsPlayers were again questioning the decision to stage an exhibition amid the pandemic after Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons of the Philadelphia 76ers were ruled out of Sunday’s game in Atlanta.Joel Embiid, left, had been named to his fourth All-Star Game. Zion Williamson of the New Orleans Pelicans was set to replace him in the starting lineup.Credit…Matt Slocum/Associated PressMarch 7, 2021Updated 9:07 p.m. ETATLANTA — The N.B.A. All-Star Game was rocked just hours before tipoff on Sunday when the league announced it would sideline Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons of the Philadelphia 76ers after they had contact with an individual who was confirmed to have tested positive for the coronavirus.Numerous top players in recent weeks had questioned playing the exhibition at all during a pandemic, and some eight hours before the game’s scheduled 8 p.m. start, Embiid and Simmons were ruled out — with the league also saying their removals would have no impact on other All-Stars or 76ers Coach Doc Rivers and his staff.Their participation would not be affected, the league said, because those people “were not exposed to the individual in Philadelphia” before traveling to Atlanta. The Sixers’ staff earned the right to coach the team captained by the Nets’ Kevin Durant because Philadelphia held the East’s best record at the All-Star break.The news broke as numerous players were conducting video conference interview sessions from their hotel rooms. Bradley Beal of the Washington Wizards, Paul George of the Los Angeles Clippers and the Nets’ James Harden were among those who responded by again questioning the wisdom of staging an All-Star Game amid a pandemic, as LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers and other stars had last month.“I don’t want to say we didn’t have a choice, but it’s in our C.B.A., and our C.B.A. says there has to be an All-Star Game every year,” Beal said of the league’s collective bargaining agreement. He added that “there’s still guys” with reservations, and he counted himself among that group.George said he “personally didn’t agree with the game.” Harden described Sunday’s events, which were to include a 3-point contest and a skills competition before the game and a dunk contest at halftime, as “forced.” James, who is captain of one of the teams, called the situation “very unfortunate” and said “it’s all something that we thought could possibly happen.”The N.B.A. flew the All-Star participants to Atlanta on private planes from their cities and required them to stay inside the league’s official hotel Saturday night — preferably in their rooms — after checking in by 7 p.m. Players were permitted to bring up to four guests, but it was not immediately known how many guests accompanied Embiid or Simmons. The players traveled on separate planes and without other 76ers personnel, according to two people briefed on the situation who were not authorized to discuss it publicly.Before arriving in Atlanta, Embiid and Simmons were exposed to a barber in Philadelphia who has since tested positive for the coronavirus. The Athletic first reported their exposure, which was confirmed by the two people. Having both registered negative coronavirus tests on Sunday, Embiid and Simmons returned to Philadelphia on separate private planes before the All-Star game began, the people said.The first scheduled team meetings to bring players from the two All-Star teams together were not until Sunday at State Farm Arena. Both teams were scheduled to meet with Adam Silver, the N.B.A. commissioner, and Michele Roberts, the executive director of the National Basketball Players Association, within three hours of the opening tip. The schedule called for All-Star participants to leave Atlanta via private transportation immediately after the game.Ben Simmons was selected to his third consecutive All-Star Game.Credit…Matt Slocum/Associated PressEmbiid, a prime Most Valuable Player Award candidate this season, had been selected to his fourth All-Star team and was to start at center for Durant’s team. Simmons, making his third All-Star team after being voted into the game as a reserve, was selected by James. Rivers chose Zion Williamson of the New Orleans Pelicans to start in Embiid’s place, but the league did not pursue replacements for either player with only hours remaining before the opening tip, opting for 11-man All-Star rosters instead of the usual 12.The 2020-21 regular season started on Dec. 22 after last season, delayed four months by the coronavirus pandemic, went all the way into October and required three months on a restricted-access campus at Walt Disney World near Orlando, Fla., to complete.In November, the league postponed its traditional All-Star Weekend, giving Indianapolis hosting rights in 2024 instead of this year. But the N.B.A. never ruled out the prospect of resuscitating a game for 2021. The league then hatched the idea to hold several All-Star events on one day, closed to the public apart from 1,500 invitation-only guests, and staged in Atlanta so Turner Sports could broadcast it all in its backyard.Silver said in a news conference on Saturday that “economic interests” were a factor in going ahead with a scaled-down version of All-Star festivities, but he also said that tremendous global fan interest had motivated the league just as much. League officials have said that a specific projection for revenue generated Sunday could not be immediately pinpointed, but various industry estimates have forecast Turner to make more than $20 million in advertising and sponsorship revenue through Sunday’s broadcast.The league, having worked closely on the plans with Roberts and Phoenix Suns guard Chris Paul, the president of the players’ union, also dedicated its All-Star festivities to promoting awareness of historically Black colleges and universities, pledging to donate at least $3 million to those institutions as well as communities of color affected by the pandemic.“It’s my job to look out for the overall interest of the league,” Silver said on Saturday. “As I said earlier, I haven’t made it a secret out of the fact that economic interests are a factor. I’ll add, though, when I say ‘economic interests are a factor,’ it’s less to do with the economics of one Sunday night on TNT in the United States. It has more to do with the larger brand value of the N.B.A.“We feel we’ve struck the appropriate balance here, looking out for the interests of everyone involved,” Silver said.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Mark Cuban Says He Told Mavericks to Stop Playing National Anthem

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The NBA SeasonVirus Hotspots in the N.B.A.The Friendship of LeBron and Anthony DavisThe N.B.A. Wanted HerMissing Klay ThompsonKobe the #GirlDadAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyMark Cuban Says He Told Mavericks to Stop Playing AnthemThe N.B.A. has long required the playing of the national anthem before games, but the league gave teams permission to skip the ritual this season.Mark Cuban, the Dallas Mavericks’ owner, before a home game between his team and the Golden State Warriors last week.Credit…Jerome Miron/USA Today Sports, via ReutersFeb. 9, 2021Mark Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, said Tuesday night that he had instructed the team to stop playing the national anthem before its home games this season.“It was my decision, and I made it in November,” Cuban said. He declined to comment further.The Mavericks did not announce the new policy, but Cuban was allowed to enact it because the N.B.A. has permitted teams “to run their pregame operations as they see fit” because of “the unique circumstances this season,” according to a league spokesman.Nearly two-thirds of the league’s 30 teams are still not admitting fans to home games, as the N.B.A. grapples with the complexities of trying to stage a 72-game season in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.Dallas is believed to be the only team in the league that has abandoned the anthem at home games, a decision that was first reported by The Athletic. Other teams have continued to play recorded versions of the anthem.The league rule book has required players to stand during the national anthem since the 1980s, but Adam Silver, the N.B.A. commissioner, said in December that the rule would not be strictly enforced this season. The league also chose not to enforce the rule during its restarting of the 2019-20 season in a bubble environment at Walt Disney World in Florida, where many players opted to kneel during the anthem to show support for the Black Lives Matter movement and to demonstrate against systemic racism and social injustice in the United States.“I recognize that this is a very emotional issue on both sides of the equation in America right now, and I think it calls for real engagement rather than rule enforcement,” Silver said in December.The anthem has not been played at American Airlines Center in Dallas before any of the Mavericks’ 13 preseason or regular-season home games this season. In a victory on Monday night over Minnesota, Dallas became one of the 11 teams in the league that are admitting reduced crowds — 1,500 frontline workers in the health care and food-service industries, as well as police officers, firefighters and other emergency workers.This, however, is not the first time in franchise history that the club has declined to play the national anthem before games. For the club’s first 16 years of existence, when it was owned by Donald Carter, “God Bless America” was sung instead before home games at the old Reunion Arena. The Mavericks began playing the national anthem after the team was purchased by Ross Perot Jr. on May 1, 1996. Cuban bought the Mavericks in January 2000.In an interview on ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” last June, before the N.B.A. resumed the 2019-20 season, Cuban said he would support players who knelt during the anthem as a form of protest.“If they were taking a knee and they were being respectful, I’d be proud of them,” Cuban said. “Hopefully I’d join them.”Cuban did not accompany the Mavericks to the bubble at Disney World, but he said via Twitter shortly after his ESPN appearance: “The National Anthem Police in this country are out of control. If you want to complain, complain to your boss and ask why they don’t play the National Anthem every day before you start work.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More