Will Kentucky men's basketball team continue to kneel during national anthem?
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Kentucky men's basketball players’ decision to kneel during the national anthem before Saturday’s game at Florida came after a series of in-depth conversations.
“We meet as a team, we talk,” graduate student guard Davion Mintz said. “That’s really special for us because everyone comes in, everyone shares their opinion. It’s not like we just have one or two guys or just the coaches. We meet as a team, we talk, we share our stories, we relate to each other and we have guys who really listen. Then we make a decision from there, and our coaches just support us.”
Kentucky coach John Calipari did not learn his players wanted to kneel during the anthem until the trip to the arena in Gainesville. After a conversation with Mintz, sophomore forward Keion Brooks and senior forward Olivier Sarr, Calipari and the other Kentucky coaches decided to kneel with the players at the players' request.
Whether the team continues to kneel the anthem will depend on the outcome of further conversations among players, Mintz said, but a repeat of the demonstration in Gainesville is unlikely to happen at Rupp Arena because the team has not been on the court for the anthem there this season.
Kentucky has limited the number of people allowed on the court this season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead of having someone sing the anthem from the court, Kentucky has played a recording of the anthem on the video board while teams are still in their locker rooms.
Background: After Capitol riot, Kentucky basketball players kneel during national anthem at Florida
Regardless of whether Kentucky players kneel during the anthem again, the conversations among Kentucky players are not ending.
“It’s a lot of stuff that goes on every day that we knelt for,” Brooks said. “The Capitol (riot), that stuff had a part to play in it, but there are some other things that we don’t see that go on every day that are unacceptable and that we want to take a stand against.”
The decision to kneel is the continuation of the team’s desire to weigh in on social issues first voiced in the summer in the wake of the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd and former Kentucky student Breonna Taylor.
On Aug. 31, the team posted a video supporting the Black Lives Matter movement in which players shared their own experiences with racism and read a list of Black people killed by police.
“The time for change is now," the players said in the video, calling for fans to support them on and off the court. "We’ve watched for too long now as our mothers, our fathers, our brothers and our sisters have been profiled and discriminated and even beaten, shot and killed. The victims of police brutality with no justice."
The men’s basketball team’s decision to kneel during the anthem is not the first time UK athletes have used their platforms to advocate for social justice issues.
The Kentucky football team led a Black Lives Matter march in downtown Lexington in June. The Wildcat women’s basketball team led a march through campus and hosted a unity fair in the plaza across from Memorial Coliseum in September. At previous road and neutral-site games where the men’s basketball team was on the court for the anthem, players and coaches stood in a line with their arms locked.
Wednesday’s violent riot in support of President Donald Trump at the U.S. Capitol came the same day authorities in Wisconsin declined to press charges against the police officer who shot Jacob Blake, a Black man, in the back seven times in August. Blake’s shooting sparked NBA players to shut down the league’s playoffs for three days and led to other protests from athletes.
Those events could restart the wave of athlete protests seen during the summer in the immediate aftermath of Blake’s shooting.
Multiple women’s college basketball teams have kneeled during the anthem this season, including Tennessee before its Thursday game against Arkansas. Florida men’s basketball sophomore wing Scottie Lewis also kneeled during the anthem Saturday, and several other men’s teams have seen some players on their team kneel during the anthem.
The unified showing by Kentucky players and coaches to all kneel at once has led criticism of the decision to be directed at the entire team rather than individual players. Players knew they were opening themselves to that criticism when they were starting to overcome the disappointment of a 1-6 start to the season, but the improved play on the court and engagement in issues off it are connected, Mintz said.
“That can attribute to it, just talking, having those conversations,” he said. “Anytime you’re discussing things, no matter if it’s basketball or personal stories, getting together and hanging out, that’s just building a bond for us and helping us become more sensitive to each other and just understanding each other. So definitely, I think those conversations help. We’re just going to continue having them because it’s working.”
For the numerous fans who took to social media to criticize the demonstration, Calipari had a message.
“These kids are good kids,” he said. “They care about this country and all of the other stuff. They’re trying to figure out life and making statements that they think they have to make. I want to listen to what they’re saying, and then I’ll support them if they want me to be there.”
Follow Jon Hale on Twitter at @JonHale_CJ.