David Stern thinks Colin Kaepernick would still be playing if he was in NBA

Ryan Young
·Staff writer
Former NBA commissioner David Stern thinks that if Colin Kaepernick were an NBA player that he would still be playing despite his protests during the national anthem. (AP/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
Former NBA commissioner David Stern thinks that if Colin Kaepernick were an NBA player that he would still be playing despite his protests during the national anthem. (AP/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

If Colin Kaepernick were playing in the NBA instead of the NFL, former NBA commissioner David Stern believes the quarterback would still have a job today.

Stern, speaking on Bloomberg’s Business of Sports podcast, blamed public criticism of Kaepernick, including from President Donald Trump, as one of the biggest reasons why teams still won’t take a chance on the former quarterback. Kaepernick hasn’t played in the NFL since 2016, when he first started kneeling during the national anthem to protest racial injustice.

The NBA, he said, made a point of letting players speak their minds about social issues — particularly during the 1970s and 1980s. That, Stern felt, helped the league to become much more visible.

“As we were digging out of a terrible hole for us — in the late ’70s and ’80s, when there was a fair amount of racism exhibited about players — we felt as a matter of policy we had to promote our players and show that they were real people,” Stern told Bloomberg. “And it worked.”

Stern, who was the NBA commissioner from 1984-2014, said that if the league simply would have suspended Kaepernick, he would still be playing.

The Alliance of American Football reportedly reached out to Kaeparnick about playing in the league’s inaugural season this year, but he turned them down. He threw for more than 2,200 yards for 16 touchdowns in 12 games in his final season with the San Francisco 49ers, posting a 90.7 quarterback rating.

Stern faced a similar situation during his tenure as commissioner in the NBA. The league has a policy requiring players to stand during the national anthem, however Denver Nuggets guard Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf challenged that policy in 1996. Adbul-Rauf remained seated or in the locker room during the national anthem to take a stance against racial injustice, as he said he viewed the American flag as a symbol of oppression and racism.

Stern fined him $32,000 and suspended him for one game. Abdul-Rauf later agreed to stand during the anthem and pray instead, however his career rapidly declined following that season.

Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr, one of the most outspoken coaches in the league, echoed Stern’s comments on Twitter on Thursday.

Even though the fallout from the Kaepernick protests upset many NFL fans, Stern said he doesn’t think that Kaepernick being signed by a team today would cause fans to abandon the league completely. It’s simply too big.

“Look at the bounceback the NFL had this season,” Stern told Bloomberg. “They are the No. 1 sports property and the No. 1 television property likely in the world, other than the Olympics and the World Cup.”

The podcast will officially air on Feb. 18.

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