National Basketball Association

Report: Hawks Will Support Players Who Protest Anthem

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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There was once a time where Colin Kaepernick was a poster-boy for the NFL’s college-esque offensive revolution. Sadly, those days are done for the quarterback, but he’s become a poster-boy for something else; kneeling during the National Anthem. Kaepernick has been in protest for the lack of awareness of police brutality against African Americans. His protest of the anthem has inspired a plethora of players and teams to either kneel or do a variation of honor during the Anthem.

With the NBA season slowly approaching, it’s brought intrigue by fans to see which NBA players will decide to protest the Anthem and who will stand. Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James and Golden State guard Stephen Curry have already stated they will stand. But, our very own Atlanta Hawks organization has stated that they will fully support any of the Hawks players who decide to protest. Catch an excerpt of the article below and read the full thing, here.

The NBA has a collectively bargained rule that requires players to stand during the national anthem. It states “Players, coaches and trainers are to stand and line up in a dignified posture along the sidelines or on the foul line during the playing of the national anthem.”

The NBA recently sent a letter to players requesting their thoughts about ways to participate in “positive change.”

Coach Mike Budenholzer said Monday that the Hawks organization will fully support the players if and how they choose to voice their opinion.

“We will be incredibly supportive of our players,” Budenholzer said. “Our ownership, our organization, myself as the coach and president and Wes (Wilcox) as our general manager, we want to be supportive of our players. The more thoughtful, the more respective, we can be. If we are those two things our country will be better. I think our players have always been both of those things. However it is they choose to (protest), I will and the organization will support them. I think it’s going to be a continuing conversation and hopefully our country will get better going forward because of the conversation.”