The Last Straw…
Coach John Calipari said the team approached him about 90 minutes before the game (at Florida Jan. 9th 2021) and asked to kneel during the National Anthem.
In their previous games of the season, the team remained in the locker room during the anthem.
Who is the leader of the Kentucky basketball team? John Calipari allowed these young men under his charge to persuade him to kneel during the National Anthem.
Could you see Coach Adolph Rupp, Coach Joe B. Hall, Coach Mike Krzyzewski, and Coach Bob Knight allowing their team to persuade them to do such?
“This is a great country but we feel like everybody, like minorities and stuff, don’t have equal rights as everybody else, so that’s what we’re protesting,” freshman Isaiah Jackson said. “That’s why we kneeled. That’s what a peaceful protest is.”
Sophomore Keion Brooks said that the team knelt not only because of racial inequalities that team members have felt, but also because of the violence at the Capitol.
“It was about the turmoil in our country right now.” "It was all the images that they saw and they wanted to have their voice heard, I held my heart, but I did kneel with them because I support the guys. It wasn't about military.” - Coach John Calipari
Three days after the team knelt at Florida, Calipari said, “Like I said to them, they're 18 years old, they're learning. It was not meant...These kids, they’re good kids. They have good hearts. Again, this political time, probably not a real good time to do it,” according to The Cats Pause.
Coach it is never a good time to disrespect the symbols of this nation and what it stands for.
The “right to protest” clause of the Constitution has received much national attention in the past few years. From Colin Kaepernick’s kneeling to Lebron James and the BLM protests.
Coach Calipari and the Kentucky basketball team “disrespected our flag and our national anthem.”
Would he have supported them if the “guys had told him we are going to jump off a 100 foot cliff and want you to join us?”
University President Eli Capilouto and Athletic Director Mitch Barnhart supported the team’s decision to kneel, saying in a joint statement, “A value we all hold dear in our country is the right of free speech and self-expression,” and added, “We live in a polarized and deeply divided country. Our hope… and that of our players and our coaches… is to find ways to bridge divides and unify.”
Coach Calipari "slapped every Kentucky military
veteran and the family of every military veteran in the face,” Buck Meredith stated.
Almost every email from Kentucky fans expressed the belief that kneeling during the national anthem… a little over 72 hours after the Capitol was stormed… was disrespectful to some combination of the country, the U.S. flag and past and present members of the U.S. Armed Forces.
“The fact you allowed them to take a knee means that you support riots and looting and burning that has taken place by the racial injustice marches.” One fan wrote.
"You lose 6 games in a row and you kneel during what our country stands for,” wrote one fan.
I personally can no longer support this coach. UK needs a good house cleaning. The President of the University, The Athletic Director and the Men’s Basketball coach all need to go!
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