The NBA, NFL, MLB and even NHL have all gotten more and more woke.
But the pro hoops league just crossed a line.
Now the NBA faces an uproar over changing this National Anthem.
Michael Jordan famously stated “Republicans buy sneakers too.”
But the approach of not alienating potential fans over politics looks like a thing of the past in today’s National Basketball Association.
The NBA has faced criticism for pandering to China and the ruling Communist Party – so much so that the General Manager of the Houston Rockets, Daryl Morey, was forced to step down from his position after supporting Hong Kong protestors.
Teams put Black Lives Matter logos on their courts and players wear gay pride badges on their jerseys.
Lebron James went as far as saying if he was stuck in a Russian gulag like the WNBA’s Brittney Griner was, he wouldn’t want to come back to America.
An NBA-approved national anthem
The NBA is all aboard the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion train.
And now they’ve crossed a very controversial line.
The league hired singer Jully Black to sing the Canadian National Anthem at the NBA All-Star game.
However, Black didn’t sing the song Canadians know and love – instead, she made one minor change with major implications.
Black changed the lyric “our home and native land” to “our home on native land.”
That one word completely changes the meaning of the line.
“Our home ON native land” –@JullyBlack 🙌🏽 pic.twitter.com/SMoxKHkMPE
— Andrew Baback Boozary MD (@drandrewb) February 20, 2023
Justin Trudeau logic
And it was no accident or misspeak.
Black, originally from Toronto, says the change was intentional and pre planned.
“We’ve been singing this anthem since kindergarten. And now, in the last three years, especially with indigenous rights and what’s going on in our country and the history and the learning, I too am learning,” Black said. “So, I reached out to some indigenous friends and said, ‘First of all, how do you feel about me doing this anthem?’ And I got some feedback.”
"I really dissected the lyrics, to really sing it with intention."@JullyBlack did her research, reaching out to Indigenous community members, before performing the Canadian anthem. pic.twitter.com/qJezyvdTbG
— THE SHIFT (@theshift_sports) February 20, 2023
Black believed it was up to her to make Canada’s national anthem more “inclusive,” on the grand stage of the NBA All-Star game.
“We are walking, breathing, living, experiencing life on native land, on Indigenous land,” Black said. “I didn’t know how much this would mean to him. But now I do. And to every person who has lived generationally through being Indigenous, and just want the world to know that their lived experience matters.”
While this change isn’t official, it is sure to have made Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau smile.
Under Trudeau’s watch as Prime Minister, in 2018 Canada changed its anthem to be “gender neutral.”
The line, “in all thy sons command” was officially changed to “in all of us command.”
Stay tuned to Unmuzzled News for any updates to this ongoing story.
