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XPost: atl.general

Turn off your TV sets.

Take the advertising revenue away from these ignorant niggers.

Oklahoma City Thunder players did not heed a lawmaker’s threat
about kneeling during the national anthem.

All the Thunder players knelt on Saturday alongside Utah Jazz
players during their NBA bubble debut.


Jazz and Thunder all kneel for the national anthem. One referee
remains standing. pic.twitter.com/hFMoq9hVNl

— Eric Walden (@tribjazz) August 1, 2020
The social justice protest arrived a day after an Oklahoma state
lawmaker attempted to pressure Thunder players to his will.

Rep. Sean Roberts (R-Hominy) issued a warning to the Thunder on
Friday threatening to pull tax breaks for the team if players
kneel during the national anthem while citing conspiracy
theories about “Marxism.”

Since bubble play started Thursday, players have largely knelt
during the national anthem to protest police brutality and
racial injustice.

Roberts floats ‘significant tax benefits’
“If the Oklahoma City Thunder leadership and players follow the
current trend of the NBA by kneeling during the national anthem
prior to Saturday’s game, perhaps we need to reexamine the
significant tax benefits the State of Oklahoma granted the
Oklahoma City Thunder organization when they came to Oklahoma,”
Roberts wrote in a statement.

Oklahoma News 4 reached out to the Thunder for a response to
Roberts’ threat. As of Friday evening, the Thunder had not
responded.

Thunder guard Chris Paul is the president of the National
Basketball Players Association. He helped negotiate a deal with
the NBA to allow players to wear social justice messaging on
their uniforms during bubble play.

It was a long shot that Paul or any other Thunder players
wouldn’t take a knee. Miami Heat forward Meyers Leonard and
Orlando Magic forward Jonathan Isaac were the only players to
decline to take a knee in the bubble through Saturday afternoon.
San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich and assistant Becky
Hammon also declined to take a knee on Friday.

Players have made a point to use their platforms to explain that
as Black men, they fear for their lives and safety in the United
States because of their skin color. Utah Jazz guard Donovan
Mitchell carried a bulletproof vest emblazoned with a list of
victims of police brutality to his news conference Thursday
night to make his point.

The NBA has a rule on its books requiring players to stand for
the anthem. Commissioner Adam Silver vowed on Thursday not to
enforce it “under these unique circumstances.”

Roberts: Kneeling will destroy families
Roberts believes the demonstration intends to destroy nuclear
families.

“By kneeling during the playing of the national anthem, the NBA
and its players are showing disrespect to the American flag and
all it stands for,” Roberts wrote. “This anti-patriotic act
makes clear the NBA’s support of the Black Lives Matter group
and its goal of defunding our nation’s police, its ties to
Marxism and its efforts to destroy nuclear families.”

https://sports.yahoo.com/oklahoma-lawmaker-threatens-tax- penalties-for-thunder-if-players-kneel-during-anthem-
031146336.html
 

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