Kentucky sheriff, fiscal court blast Calipari, UK basketball team over anthem kneeling
The sheriff and jailer in Laurel County fumed and held a “burning party” for University of Kentucky basketball apparel after the men’s team knelt during the national anthem Saturday to protest the treatment of Black citizens.
The Knox County Fiscal Court followed the sheriff Monday, demanding that the state reallocate tax dollars given to the university over the demonstration, according to the Times-Tribune.
At the state Capitol in Frankfort, Senate President Robert Stivers wept on the Senate floor Monday over how hurt he was to see the team use the national anthem to make a statement. For those with service members in their families, the players’ actions were hard to absorb even though they were protected by free speech, he said.
Meanwhile, university and athletic leadership expressed support for the players’ self-expression as they held firm Monday despite the criticism. One player said that the team wasn’t surprised by the opposition.
The burning party was announced by Jailer Jamie Mosley and Sheriff John Root on Facebook. It was shown in a video posted to Facebook Sunday. The video appears to have been deleted since then.
Nevertheless, Root condemned the team in a Facebook post prior to the gear burning, saying, “UK may have won the game but they lost their respect!”
“I honestly can’t believe a team from Kentucky (the Hillbilly State) took a knee to our National Anthem with the American flag displayed,” Root said in a Facebook post.
Those who have knelt during the anthem have repeatedly said for several years doing so is not a protest of the song or service members but an effort to draw attention to the violent and discriminatory experiences of the country’s Black citizens.
Root criticized Coach John Calipari for allowing the players to kneel during the anthem.
“Until we get a real man to lead the cats and a real team you will not see me back in no UK junk,” Root said.
Calipari knelt with his players Saturday before the team defeated the University of Florida 76-58. He said his players wanted to do it, and they wanted him to take part.
“These kids are good kids,” Calipari said. “They care about this country, and all the other stuff. They’re trying to figure out life and making statements they think they have to make. I want to listen to what they’re saying.
“I’ll support them if they want me to be there.”
Players said they were happy to have their leader alongside them in the demonstration.
Meanwhile, Mosley, the jailer, was upset with the team for taking a knee on National Law Enforcement Day.
“I back the real team in blue,” he said in a Facebook post.
There were various reasons for the UK players’ decisions to take a knee Saturday, but they said the demonstration was partially in response to a riot at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday that left five people dead, including a police officer, according to authorities. An additional officer died by suicide Saturday, according to multiple reports.
“That stuff had a part to play in it,” sophomore forward Keion Brooks Jr. said. “There’s some other things that we don’t see that go on every day that are unacceptable (that) we wanted to take a stand against.”
Knox County Judge-Executive Mike Mitchell said kneeling was “disrespectful to those who served in the military,” the Times-Tribune reported.
Mosley on Monday had set up a T-shirt exchange where people could trade in UK gear for a T-shirt supporting police and other first responders, according to WKYT, the Herald-Leader’s reporting partner.
UK President Eli Capilouto and Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart on Monday released a statement saying they believed that a right to free speech was important.
“We won’t always agree on every issue,” Capilouto and Barnhart said in their statement. “However, we hope to agree about the right of self-expression, which is so fundamental to who we are as an institution of higher learning. We live in a polarized and deeply divided country. Our hope — and that of our players and our coaches — is to find ways to bridge divides and unify.”
This story was originally published January 11, 2021 at 7:42 AM.