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Over the past several years, the NBA and its players have grown increasingly comfortable engaging in political, cultural, and social discussions that often stoke nationwide divisiveness. LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony are leading the call for athletes to speak up amid fraught tension between the black community and law enforcement, while the league itself recently moved the 2017 All-Star Game from Charlotte to New Orleans in the aftermath of North Carolina passing anti-LGBTQ legislation.
Unsurprisingly, many players have shown support for Colin Kaepernick in recent weeks, who made crossover headlines last month when he refused to stand during the national anthem before a preseason game. To this point, however, Steph Curry and others have merely empathized with the San Francisco 49ers quarterback – and other football players to follow, like the Kansas City Chiefs’ Marcus Peters – by alluding to America’s constitutional tolerance for freedom of speech and peaceful protest.
Nick Young took a different, if much more casual, approach when asked for his thoughts on the matter. In the video above captured by TMZ, the Los Angeles Lakers’ shot-happy guard suggests he might follow Kaepernick’s example come the 2016-17 season.
TMZ: Hey Nick, what you think about Colin Kaepernick not standing for the national anthem?
Young: Ah, man. I think it’s great.
TMZ: Is it appropriate just to kneel, man? Is it better than sitting?
Young: I would do the same thing, man.
TMZ: So you’re gonna take a kneel [sic] next time they play the national anthem?
Young: Nah, my knees hurt. But I might sit.
Kudos to Young for potentially taking up this cause, even if he won’t get the chance to officially do so until the Lakers’ first preseason game on October 4. The nine-year veteran, by the way, really does have knee problems; his 2014-15 season was ended prematurely by a fractured left kneecap.
Needless to say, keep an eye out for other players demonstrating during the Star Spangled Banner once preseason action tips off in early October.
