Dallas Mavericks Confirm That the National Anthem Will Play Before Tonight's Game

After Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban confirmed on Tuesday that his NBA team would no longer play the national anthem before home games, the Mavericks' Public Relations Twitter account announced on Wednesday that "The Star-Spangled Banner" would play before tonight's game against the Atlanta Hawks.

The tweet from the Mavs' PR team includes a statement from Cuban, explaining why the organization had decided not to play the national anthem at any of the team's home games so far this season.

"We respect and have always respected the passion people have for the anthem and our country," Cuban said in his statement. "But we also loudly hear the voices of those who feel that the anthem does not represent them. We feel that their voices need to be respected and heard because they have not been."

He continued: "Going forward, our hope is that people will take the same passion they have for this issue and apply the same amount of energy to listen to those who feel differently from them. Only then we can move forward and have courageous conversations that move this country forward and find what unites us."

It's unclear whether the team will continue to play the anthem throughout the rest of the NBA season.

According to The New York Times, Cuban made the decision about "The Star-Spangled Banner" back in November. Cuban also reportedly told ESPN recently that he'd spoken with NBA commissioner Adam Silver about the decision to not play the national anthem before home games.

In a statement shared on Wednesday, the NBA Chief Communications Officer Mike Bass said that, moving forward, all teams will be playing the anthem at the start of games. "With NBA teams now in the process of welcoming fans back into their arenas, all teams will play the national anthem in keeping with longstanding league policy," he said.

According to a report from The Athletic, the initial decision to stop playing the anthem was made quietly, and team employees only noticed the change on their own.

Cuban's decision to stop playing the anthem came several months after the NBA announced new social-justice initiatives. Amid the backdrop of widespread Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, and following a players' strike during the playoffs, the NBA and the Players Association reached an agreement that the league would take a number of actions to promote civic engagement, including the establishment of a social-justice coalition focused on voting access and advocating for criminal justice reform.

Correction 2/10/2021, 4:45 p.m. ET: An earlier version of this story misstated that it was Cuban who said the national anthem would be played before tonight's Dallas Mavericks game. That announcement was actually made in a tweet from the Mavericks' Public Relations Twitter account, alongside a statement from Cuban.