Dallas Mavericks stop playing national anthem before home games

SAN ANTONIO (KTSA News) – The Dallas Mavericks no longer are playing the national anthem before their home games.  After more than a dozen preseason and regular season home games, somebody noticed and started asking questions.

There was no public announcement or explanation about it, but franchise owner Mark Cuban confirmed to The Athletic and the New York Times this week that it was his decision.

“It was my decision, and I made it in November,” Cuban told The New York Times.

This isn’t the first time the  Dallas Mavericks haven’t featured the “Star Spangled Banner.”  According to the New York Times, God Bless America was sung instead of the national anthem during the first sixteen years of the franchise when it was owned by Donald Carter.   The team started playing the national anthem when it was purchased by Ross Perot Jr. in 1996.

Cuban, who has owned the team since 2000,  hasn’t commented on his decision to forgo the anthem this season, but in an interview last June on ESPN’s “Outside the Lines,” Cuban said he would support players who knelt during the anthem.

In a tweet shortly after that ESPN interview, he tweeted,” 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.”