NBA Rules and the National Anthem

Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf is playing again and standing with his teammates during the national anthem (March 15). The NBA got what it wanted and Abdul-Rauf is solving his problem by offering a prayer for those who are suffering. A crisis has been resolved. But there is a lesson to be learned.

What the NBA did was wrong and lamentable. It demonstrates that the high moguls of the NBA do not understand what the national anthem is all about. It does not stand for coercing people, who are harming no one, into violating their religious consciences. The Abdul-Rauf case is not unlike that of the Jehovah’s Witness schoolchildren who would not stand and recite the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag being likewise suspended. The words of the Supreme Court (West Virginia State Board of Education vs. Barnette) in holding such action to be unconstitutional are worthy of note. “The action of the local authorities in compelling the flag salute and pledge transcends constitutional limitations on their power and invades the sphere of intellect and spirit which it is the purpose of the 1st Amendment to our Constitution to reserve from all official control.”

True, the NBA is a “private” organization and so, technically, not subject to constitutional constraints. But whether legal or not, the spirit of the 1st Amendment should certainly be respected by so public and powerful an organization as the NBA. Abdul-Rauf has stated that he acquiesced in standing by reexamining his position and finding in Islam that he could do so. He must, of course, be taken at his word. But the pressure put upon him by the NBA to relent cannot be disregarded. The NBA would have acted far more nobly had it respected Abdul-Rauf’s beliefs and not coerced him ($31,707 per game’s worth) as it did.

FRED OKRAND

Sherman Oaks

* Re “Leave Piety, Patriotism Out of Sports,” by Edward Yoder, Commentary, March 17: I take exception to Yoder’s statement, “Abdul-Rauf’s views about the flag, American history, race, religion or your uncle’s old brown derby hat are wholly immaterial.”

To the contrary, basketball is a business and is dependent on its customers to pay the bills. The management is trying to present a good front and employees must cooperate or be dismissed. Anybody in business will tell you that “the customer is always right.”

REUBEN PAPERNY

Los Angeles