By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
It was 11:30 a.m. Sunday and two sports scenes with Las Vegas all over them played out to very different social justice message scripts.
The WNBA Las Vegas Aces players wore jerseys with Breonna Taylor’s name on them and were not on the court for the national anthem for their 12 noon pandemic game with the Chicago Sky in Bradenton, Florida.
Meanwhile, hundreds of NHL Vegas Golden Knights fans gathered in a parking lot outside the VGK training center/headquarters in Downtown Summerlin to send off the Knights players to the Edmonton “bubble” to play in the NHL’s pandemic Stanley Cup playoffs.
One of the Aces players, Angel McCoughtry, had suggested that WNBA players wear the name of a person killed in a racial justice situation. WNBA players in the “bubble” Sunday including the Aces’ players had jerseys bearing the name of “Breonna Taylor” — a Black Louisville woman killed by police while she slept during a non-knock warrant.
“I’m playing for the name on the back of my jersey and that’s Breonna Taylor,” Aces star player A’ja Wilson said after the game.
During halftime of the Aces-Sky game on ABC-TV, a segment showed WNBA star Maya Moore taking the year off from her Minnesota team to fight for a friend’s appeal to vacate burglary and assault convictions. “We need to be people before players,” Moore said on the segment.
Back in Summerlin where fans waved VGK flags and wished the players well for their sendoff to Alberta, Canada, there were no signs of social justice issues that have gripped this country since a Black man, George Floyd, was killed by a white Minneapolis police officer on Memorial Day while the officer took a knee on Floyd’s neck.
In fact, a Golden Knights fan, Jeff Stanulis, was upset that the NHL was considering mentioning Black Lives Matter at the playoffs that begin in the hub bubble cities of Edmonton for the Western Conference teams and Toronto for the Eastern Conference teams Aug. 1. LVSportsBiz.com spoke with Stanulis, known for playing the Elvis character professionally and dressing up as Elvis at VGK home games.
His message was country first and sports should not include political messages. “Everybody can speak their mind on their own time,” Stanulis said. Stanulis said he will not watch the Golden Knights in the playoffs if there is social or racial justice messages at the games. And he will not watch NHL playoff games if players take a knee before the national anthem like Major League Baseball players did during the Opening Day games last week.
Here’s his message on his Facebook page.
The professional sports have very different demographics. Most WNBA players are Black, and many fans are Black. The NHL players are mostly white, with fans mostly white, too. The LA Times said the NHL had about 45 Black players in the 31-team league.
The National Hockey League is not known for its teams making explicit political statements on social issues. Here”s a a story worth reading on the topic of race in the NHL.
The NHL tweeted this photo of Rogers Place, where the Knights and 11 other Western Conference teams will play starting Aug. 1.
That’s why it will be interesting to see what the NHL does regarding the racial justice issues at the start of its postseason games. Major League Baseball was not shy about its support for Black Lives Matter during the Opening Day games.
A hockey journalist in Edmonton posted this photo on Twitter Sunday, showing the arena’s center ice area.
Here’s the NHL postseason schedule for the first nine days of August.
The Aces lost, 88-86, to Chicago Sunday, while the Golden Knights play Dallas Aug. 3 in the first of three round-robin games to determine playoff seeding. And on Saturday, the Las Vegas Lights FC soccer team lost 2-1 to San Diego in California.
By the way, Aces coach Bill Laimbeer did not wear a Black Lives Matter shirt. But his hair and headband sure drew a lot of attention during the Aces-Sky game on ABC-TV.
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