Less than 24 hours after owner Mark Cuban confirmed the Dallas Mavericks are no longer playing the National Anthem before home games, the team is changing course. 

Earlier today, the NBA issued the following statement: “With NBA teams now in the process of welcoming fans back into their arenas, all teams will play the national anthem in keeping with longstanding league policy.”

The Mavericks then announced that they would play the anthem before their home game Wednesday night. 

Cuban told ESPN that he made the initial decision to stop playing the anthem after consulting with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. The team hadn’t played the anthem prior to any of its home games this season. 

Monday night’s game was the first this season with fans — 1,500 vaccinated health care workers — in attendance. 

“We respect and always have respected the passion people have for the anthem and our country,” Cuban said in a statement Wednesday. “But we also loudly hear the voices of those who feel that the anthem does not represent them.”

During last summer’s NBA bubble, the majority of players knelt while the anthem was played following national responses to several instances of police brutality.

Colin Kaepernick’s influence is still on the rise.

The former NFL quarterback is part of a group looking to raise $287.5 million in an IPO for blank check company Mission Advancement. Kaepernick, with private investment firm The Najafi Companies, will look to acquire a consumer business worth around $1 billion with the intent of taking it public. 

The SPAC’s board members are majority female and 100% BIPOC.

Mission Advancement’s filing referenced Kaepernick’s “substantial business experience” and “long-term leadership on racial equity and justice issues,” as well as his involvement with Nike, Disney, Apple, Amazon and other major brands.

• Kaepernick, who last played in the NFL in 2016, has since founded the Know Your Rights Campaign to raise awareness about higher education and self-empowerment in Black and brown people.
• In 2018, Kaepernick completed his mission of donating $1 million to social justice-focused organizations, and raised an additional $400,000 from athletes and celebrities including Kobe Bryant, Steph Curry and Serena Williams.
• He is reportedly working on a memoir, and said as recently as last year that he still wants to play in the NFL.

The SPAC filing noted that purpose and profit can be symbiotic, and that consumers have greater trust in brands with values that align with their own.

The NHL sweetened its new deal with PointsBet by receiving equity in the sports betting operator.

As part of an agreement that names PointsBet an “Official Sports Betting Partner of the NHL,” the Australian-based operator is set to allocate 43,106 shares to the NHL.

The shares are currently worth around $531,000 and will be equally issued after 12 months, 24 months and 36 months. 

The move comes after PointsBet became the exclusive betting partner for NBC Sports in August in a five-year deal valued at around $500 million. PointsBet content will now be featured during NBC’s broadcasts of the NHL.

FanDuel, William Hill and MGM have all previously partnered with the league.

This isn’t the NHL’s first equity deal in sports betting either; it invested in DraftKings in 2014 before the betting operator went public.