NBA’s Adam Silver claims to respect peaceful protest ahead of reboot opener | Bleacher report

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has said the league intends to “respect peaceful protest” when the matches resume Thursday evening, which implies that players will not be punished if they kneel during the national anthem.

“I respect peaceful protests. I’m not sure what our players will do when they come out tomorrow night, and obviously we will face it at the moment, but I also understand that these are very unusual times,” Silver said on Wednesday Good morning America.

The NBA has been implementing a policy since 1981 that requires players to resist the national anthem. The league suspended Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf in 1996 for his refusal to support the anthem.

Several teams are expected to protest during the anthem when matches resume this week in Orlando, Florida. Malika Andrews of ESPN reported that the pelicans of New Orleans and Utah Jazz, who play at 6:30 pm ET on TNT, are planning a collaborative protest around the league’s Black Lives Matter painting on the field.

Silver’s intermediate answer to the question seems a little strange, given the league’s transparent commitment to social justice. The commissioner could have said definitively that the league would allow players to protest peacefully without consequences and changed the NBA’s anthem policy. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, who had once worked to suppress player protests, has even changed his tune on the issue in recent months.

The NBA and WNBA are the only two main professional sports leagues with a rule that requires players to support the anthem. However, WNBA players have knelt in the past without punishment.