Heroic or misguided? UK players kneeling during anthem draws mixed reaction
When it comes to standing and the national anthem, Kentucky’s team kneeling as it played last weekend raised a question: Are you standing against the peaceful gesture or standing with the players in their attempt to call attention to long-lasting societal injustice?
Several readers sent emails stating how they felt. Here’s an edited sampling:
Not during anthem
Gwen Dick said that the playing of the national anthem was not the time for a statement of protest.
“We need a coach with leadership,” she wrote. “If they wanted to protest it could have been done sometime other than when the national anthem was being played!
“I cannot believe Mitch Barnhart went along with this!”
She attached a link to a 2014 video of Buzz Williams talking with his Virginia Tech players about standing with your right hand on your heart during the playing of the national anthem.
Now the Texas A&M coach, Williams said earlier this season that his players stay in the locker room during the playing of the anthem at home games. The Southeastern Conference issued new guidelines for this season that allow teams to stay in the locker room during the anthem. UK players do that at home games.
Williams added that his A&M team has addressed problems in society.
After Minneapolis police killed George Floyd, A&M had team meetings every Tuesday night for 15 weeks to discuss social injustice, Williams said. “We’ve been very proactive in trying to figure out as a group how we can be together … and how we want to be part of positive change.”
Heroes
Tom Stephens saluted the UK players.
“I have always admired the courage of Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the Mexico City Olympics and Colin Kaepernick in the NFL,” he wrote of past examples of protests designed to call attention to injustice. “I see the kneeling in Gainesville in the same light. Those boys and men are heroes in my opinion.”
Stephens was born in Bowling Green and now lives in Florida. He said he lost his job as an activities director at a beachside resort last March because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“I’m a 75-year old white male … who has been a lifetime fan of UK basketball,” he wrote. “I have NEVER been more proud of my chosen team (and coaches) as when they took a stand by kneeling. It takes courage to support a principle. …
“The university is there to teach the kids right from wrong. Perhaps the kids are there to teach us all the same thing. I applaud them.”
No longer a fan
Gary W. Cox, who is from Warfield, Ky., wrote that he has been a UK fan since the 1960s. No more.
“I don’t condone racism or violence and believe that all our citizens should be treated with respect,” he wrote. “I respect their right to protest, to have a different opinion than me but don’t think the national anthem is the place for that. Like the Capitol building and halls of Congress. … some things are sacred.
“I will not watch the game tonight. I actually will quit watching UK basketball all together. Because it’s also my right to support teams, coaches and universities that I believe in. I find it hard to believe that 12 19-year-old kids, most who have only been here one year and will be gone next year will destroy my 60 years of support of UK basketball but I have no choice.”
“An epiphany’
Ernie Henninger, who often shares his opinion, did so via email.
“Every once in a while an epiphany: the kneeling by the UK players and coaches in the cause of inclusion and the ugly reactions around the state have transformed this old geezer,” he wrote. “Whichever way this season goes from here I’ll be with this team — bad hair and all!”
‘Gut punch’
Donald C. Storm, who identified himself as a retired major general in the U.S. military (serving from 1970 to 2007), went on Facebook to condemn the Kentucky team for not standing during the anthem.
“Absolute gut punch for me and to our entire family,” he posted. “You can make any excuse or come up with any cause or motivation you want to, it hurts most veterans and it cuts deep. …
The explanation provided by all the adults in charge has been absolutely ulcer-producing. They are responsible for allowing this to happen. Really, the players don’t have a clue about Kentucky’s history or values. But they do know it is one of the best minor league basketball NBA prep schools. …
“Bottom line: the picture of my beloved Wildcats kneeling during the anthem and the Gators standing appropriately and proudly on national TV scarred and hurt; and hurt deeply.”
‘Great disservice’
Larry Weeks condemned the UK team’s peaceful protest as an insult to people in the military and law enforcement and “patriotic citizens who otherwise contributed to our nation in so many ways.”
(After Kentucky’s game against Alabama, John Calipari said the kneeling at Florida was not meant to be anti-military, but motivated by the players’ seeing repeated examples of injustice.)
“The pitiful leadership of UK BB coaches in not educating these talented youth (like the Virginia Tech coach did a couple years ago) do themselves, their team and Kentucky a great disservice,” Weeks wrote.
In a followup email, Weeks said he lives in Pinehurst, N.C. His father was senior pastor at Lexington’s Porter Memorial Church in the 1940s and 1950s.
“The gate attendants knew Dad and we got in free,” he wrote. “That’s old-time professional courtesy and also the glory days with Rupp and Bryant.”
Weeks said he graduated from Western Kentucky University in 1964, joined the Marines and served two years in Vietnam. He said he retired from the Marines as a colonel in 1989.
Simply put
William Freese got right to the point in an email: “I support the team.”
Now, returning to basketball …
Who is champ?
With games postponed, it’s easy to imagine an SEC race ending with one team having, say, a 14-4 record. And another team’s final league record being, say, 8-1.
How would the regular-season championship be determined? By winning percentage? By total number of victories? Some other way?
Herb Vincent, the SEC’s associate commissioner for communications, explained how this would be handled.
“In order to award a regular-season champion, teams should complete at least two-thirds (or 66%) of scheduled conference contests,” he wrote in an email. “For the 2021 conference season, men’s basketball teams must complete at least 12 games and women’s basketball teams must complete at least 11 games.”
The 2020-21 Commissioner’s Regulations guide explained how a regular-season champion will be determined, Vincent wrote.
The answer: the team with the highest percentage of wins in a total of 12 or more league games will be declared the SEC regular-season champion.
Playing for Cal
Former UK standout De’Aaron Fox was the guest on a Showtime program entitled “All the Smoke With Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson.”
Fox was asked what it was like playing for John Calipari at Kentucky.
“Man, it was great. I love Cal,” he said. “I still talk to Cal to this day. He lets you rock. That’s why he wants guards like John (Wall) and myself and (Brandon) Knight, Tyler Ulis. The way that he coaches — it’s like absolute freedom. He’ll put X’s and O’s but at the end of the day, everything’s going to end up in a pick and roll or isolation. That’s what the NBA is, too.
“When he’s able to get those guys, you find success. Cal couldn’t give a damn about winning college basketball games. If he’s getting guys who he knows he can end up developing into NBA players, you’re automatically going to win 30 games a year just from that alone. That’s what I loved.”
‘S-curve’
Among the adjustments caused by the coronavirus pandemic involves seeding and bracketing for this year’s NCAA Tournament
The NCAA announced it will use an “s curve” to seed and bracket teams. This will be only for the 2021 NCAA Tournament because the entire event is scheduled to be played in Indiana.
Historically, the participating schools’ geographic proximity to early-round sites “largely drives the committee’s bracketing decisions,” the NCAA said in a news release. “This year’s bracket will be mostly determined by the overall ranking of the 68 teams.”
In other words, the fifth seed will be in the same bracket as the fourth seed, the sixth seed with the third seed, etc. This will be the case throughout the seeding, meaning the No. 1 overall seed will play a first-round game against the lowest-seeded team.
Happy birthday
To Shagari Alleyne. He turned 37 on Thursday. … To Mike Scott. He turned 54 on Thursday. … To Jay Shidler. He turned 63 on Friday. …To Richard Madison. He turned 56 on Saturday. … To Dirk Minniefield. He turns 60 on Sunday (today). … To James Lee. He turns 65 on Sunday (today). … To Oliver Simmons. He turns 45 on Monday. … To former Alabama player and later coach Mark Gottfrield. He turns 57 on Wednesday. … To Tyler Herro. He turns 21 on Wednesday.
