“The NBA ridiculed and condemned me for it” 53-year old Mahmoud Abdul Rauf speaks on getting CANCELLED for not standing during the National Anthem
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Shaq and Mahmoud Abdul Rauf
Before a basketball game in March 1996, Mahmoud Abdul Rauf did something that would change his life. He had been on his way to a long and prosperous career up until that point. During the national anthem, Abdul-Rauf refused to stand. He’d been doing it all season, for months, but it wasn’t until mid-March that reporters caught on. Louisiana State University in 2019 retired jersey No. 35 in honor of Abdul-Rauf, who played for the school for two seasons in the late 1980s before turning pro. Shaquille O’Neal referred to him as a “truly phenomenal and extremely talented athlete”
Today, Mahmoud Abdul Rauf claims he doesn’t “have a connection with the NBA,” but he does have a relationship with some NBA players, including those he’s helped train, such as Victor Oladipo, DJ Augustin, Spencer Dinwiddie, and Dennis Smith Jr. Other veterans, such as Rose and fellow protestor Craig Hodges, who persuaded Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson to boycott an NBA finals game in the aftermath of the terrible Rodney King beating, have remained close friends. Comments like that cost Hodges his career, as he detailed in his new book, Long Shot. Abdul-Rauf now refers to Hodges as a “brother.”
Mahmoud Abdul Rauf’s career in the NBA and the national anthem controversy
A girls’ basketball coach found him, and as a youngster, he became a star high school player, appearing in the McDonald’s All-American Game. In 1987 and 1988, he has crowned Mississippi’s Mr. Basketball. Despite being considered tiny, he attended LSU and established scoring records. He played with a young Shaquille O’Neal in his second year before joining the NBA. In the 1990 Draft pick, he was chosen third overall by the Denver Nuggets.
He frequently led the league in free-throw percentage and once scored 51 points in a single game against the Utah Jazz. On March 12, Mahmoud Abdul Rauf told reporters that he couldn’t stand for the song because the Koran forbade him from participating in nationalistic ceremonies and that the American flag was “a sign of oppression, of tyranny. That has a long history in this nation. I don’t believe you can disagree with the facts. You can’t be for God and oppression at the same time,” he explained.
The NBA was quick to respond. The league suspended him without pay the next day, citing a rule requiring players to “line up in a respectful stance” during the anthem. Mahmoud Abdul Rauf, however, has no regrets for his actions. “As far as I’m concerned, I was destined to go through it, and as long as I could acquire not only experience but develop from it, I’m not going to regret it,” he told The Washington Post’s Rick Maese in 2017. He still prays with his head down during the national anthem, despite being 53 years old and having a grey beard.
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Abhivyakt Sharma
(270 Articles Published)