{"id":602220,"date":"2021-07-25T15:21:35","date_gmt":"2021-07-25T19:21:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=602220"},"modified":"2021-07-25T15:21:38","modified_gmt":"2021-07-25T19:21:38","slug":"woke-wake-up-call-wnba-players-reverse-course-will-not-protest-during-national-anthem-at-olympics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/woke-wake-up-call-wnba-players-reverse-course-will-not-protest-during-national-anthem-at-olympics\/","title":{"rendered":"Woke Wake-Up Call? WNBA Players Reverse Course, Will Not Protest During National Anthem At Olympics"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">30<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwoke-wake-up-call-wnba-players-reverse-course-will-not-protest-during-national-anthem-at-olympics%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=602220&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/GettyImages-1234145907.jpg?w=1200&amp;h=800&amp;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p>WNBA players, who have been protesting racism all season by leaving the court during the national anthem, say they have decided not to continue their demonstration during the Olympics and will remain on the court during the \u201cStar-Spangled Banner.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Team captain Sue Bird, who is engaged to United States women\u2019s soccer star \u2014 and woke icon \u2014 Megan Rapinoe, reportedly defended the decision to the media, claiming that the move was not \u201chypocritical\u201d because she and her teammates were playing for Team USA, not individual cities.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou are wearing USA jerseys, and it does change the conversation a little bit and what you\u2019re representing,\u201d Bird told the Associated Press, <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2021\/07\/25\/sue-bird-wnba-to-relax-anthem-protest-for-olympics\/\">per the New York Post<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith that, I don\u2019t feel like a hypocrite in any way,\u201d she added. \u201cEveryone knows where we stand. I don\u2019t think it contradicts anything since we\u2019re actually doing the work.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThroughout the WBNA season, the four-time Olympic gold medalist and her teammates have remained in the locker room during \u2018The Star-Spangled Banner,&#8217;\u201d the Post noted.<\/p>\n<p>The WNBA has \u201cled the way\u201d on social justice protests in professional basketball, according to a report last year from the Washington Post. Before NBA players walked off the court over racial injustice and emblazoned their jerseys with woke slogans, the WNBA was putting social justice front and center in the league, kneeling in protest, wearing custom shirts and sweatsuits, and, last year, introduced a \u201cWNBA Social Justice Council\u201d to organize players\u2019 anti-racist efforts.<\/p>\n<p>In Tokyo, though, Bird says fans should expect a more muted approach. In an exhibition game ahead of the Tokyo Olympics, players locked arms during the national anthem \u2014 an example of a more \u201crelaxed\u201d protest, per the Post.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe all want our country to be a better place, and that\u2019s what this is about,\u201d Bird said. \u201cThat\u2019s an athlete\u2019s mentality, and there\u2019s really no better people to do that than athletes.&nbsp;What do we do every single day? What do we talk about? Getting better.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While Bird may be responding to the pressure of being on the international stage, it\u2019s no secret that woke protests haven\u2019t been welcome at the Tokyo Olympics \u2014 and that Americans aren\u2019t as enthusiastic about the 2020 summer games in part, at least, because of woke athletes.<\/p>\n<p>As the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/olympics-ratings-set-to-crash-research-suggests-get-woke-go-broke-effect-partly-to-blame-report\">Daily Wire reported<\/a> last week, \u201c[m]ore than 60% of Americans were unable to express excitement or interest in the summer games, and at least 45% of Americans confirmed they are NOT looking forward to the games in any capacity.\u201d Excitement was even lower among Republicans.<\/p>\n<p>Speculation about a ratings free-fall was confirmed Sunday. \u201cJust 16.7 million Americans tuned in to NBC\u2019s broadcast of the ceremony, the smallest U.S. television audience to watch the event in the past 33 years, according to preliminary data from Comcast-owned NBCUniversal,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/is-anyone-watching-olympics-tv-viewers-drop-to-33-year-low\">Daily Wire reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Bird may also be learning from Rapinoe\u2019s experience. After the U.S. women\u2019s soccer team posted an excruciating loss to Sweden in the first game of the Tokyo Olympics, viewers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/on-heels-of-stunning-loss-u-s-womens-soccer-gets-brutalized-online-for-woke-protesting\">took to social media to blast Rapinoe<\/a> and her teammates for focusing more intently on scoring woke points than scoring goals.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\">member<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WNBA players, who have been protesting racism all season by leaving the court during the national anthem, say they have decided not to continue their demonstration during the Olympics and &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-602220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=602220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}