Milwaukee Bucks guard George Hill was not on the sidelines during Saturday night’s national anthem. He later explained why that was, in extremely descriptive terms.
The Bucks finally returned to the court to face the Orlando Magic on Saturday after refusing to play last week over the Jacob Blake shooting. Naturally, the players all took a knee in protest against the country during the anthem. But one player was missing.
Cameras caught George Hill off the court and waiting for the song to end before joining his team.
George Hill chose to stay by the locker rooms during the national anthem. He joined his teammates once it was over. pic.twitter.com/vnvbNs5o6k
— ESPN (@espn) August 29, 2020
Unsurprisingly, members of the sports media wanted to know if Hill had some sort of big deal, principled reason for refusing to take the court for the national anthem.
Apparently, Hill had no protests to cite. Only his “pre-game ritual.”
“You want the honest truth?” Hill told the media after the game. I take a shit every time before the game. I’ve been doing it for the last four years. If you go back and watch any footage of our previous games before we came down here to this bubble, that’s what I do before every game. It so happened that you guys were snoozing in the hallways and caught me coming back from my pre-game ritual. And that’s what I always do. That’s the honest truth.”
Here’s the actual question and full quote: pic.twitter.com/l2Lm9yG44Q
— Marc J. Spears (@MarcJSpears) August 30, 2020
It was a natural question for the media, granted. Hill was reportedly one of the instigators of the Bucks’ decision not to play last Wednesday’s game. He reportedly helped lead the team to the boycott.
Before Wednesday’s walkout, Hill was already speaking against playing. On Monday, he told the media that the NBA should have skipped the post COVID part of the season, especially in light of the shooting of Jacob Blake. Hill insisted that “we shouldn’t have come” to the NBA bubble to resume the season.
By Wednesday, Hill was leading the team to a boycott. But he insisted that it wasn’t just a publicity stunt.
“What we did was nothing to get notoriety for,” Hill said according to ESPN. “It was nothing that we were doing for a publicity stunt. It’s something that we did from our heart. We were tired of different things going on in this world. We wanted action; we wanted things to be held accountable. And we decided to do this as a team.”
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Facebook at: facebook.com/Warner.Todd.Huston.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.