South Carolina women’s basketball team catches flak for skipping national anthem at Final Four
Coach Dawn Staley explained why the team was protesting last year
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}South Carolina’s Dawn Staley has the Gamecocks on the precipice of a women’s basketball national championship but the team was catching some flak for Friday night’s outing.
The Gamecocks were not on the court for the national anthem before their tip-off against Louisville. Cardinals players stood at one side of the court with their arms intertwined.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Head coach Dawn Staley of the South Carolina Gamecocks talks with her team during a timeout in the third quarter against the Louisville Cardinals during the 2022 NCAA Women's Final Four semifinal game at Target Center on April 01, 2022 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Elsa/Getty Images)
Staley’s team has stayed in the locker room during the anthem or protested in some form since the middle of the 2020-21 college basketball season. She told Andscape at the time that’s players were sitting during the national anthem in almost every game that season to "bring awareness to racial injustice in our country."
"If opposing teams choose to play the anthem during the time we’re in the locker room, then we choose to stay in the locker room," she said.
South Carolina Gamecocks players huddle before their game against the Louisville Cardinals during the semifinals of the NCAA Womens Basketball Tournament at the Target Center on April 1, 2022 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Ben Solomon/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)
Staley added: "I love our country, too. I don’t like what our country has come to, or what our country has been, but I’d like to think that there are people in our country that’s going to lead us more in a unified way than a divisive way, and I’m here for that."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}According to Insider, most teams have stayed in the locker room as well until Louisville came out.
Some Cardinals players were wearing Adidas-branded shirts with a message on the back: "No person in the United States, shall on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance."
Louisville Cardinals warm-up for NCAA Women's Final Four game wearing adidas "More Is Possible" tees as part of adidas’ NIL announcement which celebrates the 50th anniversary of Title IX on Friday, April 1 at Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Elsa/Getty Images for adidas)
Ahead of the national championship game, South Carolina and UConn were both on the floor for the anthem.
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South Carolina would go onto defeat UConn for their second-ever national title.