Trump tweets ‘people are not happy’ with athletes kneeling

President Donald Trump took aim at protesting athletes again on Tuesday, tweeting that people ‘are not happy that players are not standing for our National Anthem!’

Although some NFL players have done so since 2016, athletes across the NBA, NHL and Major League Baseball have recently begun kneeling in protest of racism during The Star-Spangled Banner. However, despite Trump’s claim, the leagues’ television audiences do not appear to have suffered.   

For instance, NBA viewership is up 14 percent on ESPN and TNT since restarting its pandemic-interrupted season at Disney World last week, according to the league. 

TNT’s opening doubled header averaged an impressive 2.9 million viewers on Thursday, while that night’s Lakers-Clippers game specifically averaged 3.4 million, more than doubling the network’s regular season mark. 

Meanwhile Friday’s Rockets-Mavericks game drew 1.7 million viewers, and Sunday’s Rockets-Bucks game also did well, drawing 2.2 million and giving ABC a demographic victory among adults 18 to 49. 

MLB’s ratings are off to a strong start as well. 

The opening weekend drew 25 million unique viewers, tripling the audience size from 2019, according to MLB; while ESPN’s first 12 games of 2020 averaged nearly 1.2 million viewers – a 34 percent jump from last year. 

In fact, ESPN’s season Yankees-Nationals opener drew four million viewers, a record average audience for MLB’s opening night game, according to SportsProMedia.com.

Meanwhile Fox has seen a double-digit rise, according to The Wall Street Journal, and TBS’ first game of 2020 was also major success, roping in 653,000 viewers — a 65 percent improvement over 2019.

The league’s digital subscription service, MLB.TV, has also seen a surge in viewership, recording three of its five most-watched days ever with 924,000 unique users.

The NHL’s ratings, while not as high as its competitors’, have also been strong since the league re-opened inside bubbles in Toronto and Edmonton on Saturday.

NBC enjoyed its most-watched double-header in four years, thanks largely to the Montreal Canadiens’ 3-2 overtime win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Monday that drew 1.5 million North American viewers.

Minnesota Wild defenseman Matt Dumba became the league’s first player to kneel in protest during the anthem on Saturday, and he has since been followed by a handful of other players.  

Compared to the NFL, players in the NHL, NBA, and MLB are relatively new to protesting.  

All three of those leagues were suspended amid the coronavirus outbreak when African-American man George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis police custody on May 25, sparking nationwide protests. Now, since returning to play, each league has acknowledged the social justice movement, while many individual players have knelt in protest.

Nearly every NBA player has taken a knee during the anthem as commissioner Adam Silver vowed not to enforce the league’s 39-year-old rule requiring players to stand.

One notable exception has been Orlando Magic forward Jonathan Isaac, whose decision appeared to resonate with critics of the protests.

Isaac’s replica jersey had never been among the top sellers at the league’s online store, but according to the NBA, it ranked second behind only LeBron James’ Lakers uniform between July 30, when the season restarted, and August 3.

Isaac, who also refused to wear a Black Lives Matter t-shirt with his teammates before the game, explained his decision to reporters afterwards.

‘Absolutely I believe Black Lives Matter,’ he said. ‘A lot went into my decision … kneeling or wearing a Black Lives Matter T-shirt don’t go hand in hand in supporting Black lives. I do believe that Black lives matter, I just felt like it was a decision I had to make, and I didn’t feel like putting that shirt on and kneeling went hand in hand with supporting Black lives.

‘I don’t think that kneeling or putting on a T-shirt for me, personally, is the answer. For me, Black lives are supported through the Gospel, all lives are supported through the Gospel.’

Unfortunately for Isaac, his season came to an abrupt end on Sunday when he tore the ACL in his left knee during a win over Sacramento. 

The the demonstrations have been a source of controversy since 2016, with then-San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick refusing to stand for the anthem to raise awareness about inequality and racist police brutality.

Since September of 2017, when Trump first seized upon the issue at a rally in Alabama, the President has repeatedly voiced his objection to athletes kneeling in protest. Over that time he has mentioned the word ‘anthem’ in no fewer than 30 tweets.

Although NFL ratings dropped 17 percent in 2017 and 2018 as players continued protesting during the anthem, the league had a 5 percent uptick last season while boasting 46 of the 50 most-watched telecasts during the year.