Bill Would Take State Funding from Teams that Don't Play Anthem

Earlier this year the Dallas Mavericks were not playing the national anthem before games, a new bill being proposed is clearly taking a shot at Mavericks owner Mark Cuban.

Back at the start of the NBA season, with no fans in attendance, the Dallas Mavericks were not playing the National Anthem. The lack of fans in attendance lead to a different pregame routine. The Mavericks made the decision to not play the National Anthem, they actually did it for several games without anyone noticing since the anthem is not played on television.

A reporter attending the game noticed and asked Cuban about it. He said the anthem has not been played for Mavericks home games during the preseason or regular season. He declined any further comment on the anthem after confirming it was no longer being played. Once the NBA found out about this, they said all teams will be playing the National Anthem for all games.

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Looks like Texas is going to make sure all leagues across the state play the National Anthem before games. The “Star Spangled Banner Protection Act” would make exactly that happen. If a team in Texas does not do this, they will lose all of their state funding.

During Monday’s debate on the House floor, opponents questioned the constitutionality of a law that they said ties funding to free speech by threatening negative action against sports teams that choose to express their opinions by declining to play the anthem.

Authors of the bill say, teams have the right to not play the national anthem before games. “It’s very simple. If they do not want to play the national anthem, they don’t take the tax dollars,” Representative Burrows said. “If we’re going to go ahead and subsidize with hard-earned American dollars the sporting facilities and the teams in the different ways that I think is articulated in this bill, then this would apply.”

We will see if this bill goes any further. We're in the final week for this Texas legislative session and we will see if this goes to the Governor's desk in the next few days.

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