Taking stand by taking knee

Rockets and Mavericks players, along with coaches, staffs and game officials took knees during the national anthem before Friday’s game, the first for both teams in the NBA restart.

This was in keeping with the other games played Thursday and Friday, but Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni said it comes with a great deal of conversation throughout the month together on the NBA’s Disney campus.

“We’re starting to be a big family, especially here in the bubble,” D’Antoni, wearing another one of his “Vote” T-shirts, said. “We’re sharing all the meals. You talk, and in conversation you get really close to people.

“Hopefully, everybody has empathy to ones that feel that they can’t live with the full protection of the constitution all the time. It’s a problem that we’ve had for 400 years. It’s time to shine a light on it. The world has changed. Hopefully, we can use our platform to create a better place. America’s great, but it can be greater. We need to do our part.”

D’Antoni emphasized the hope was to draw attention to injusticeand not disrespect.

“Obviously, there’s no disrespect to the military or military families or … front-line workers,” D’Antoni said. “We just want to use our platform to point out injustice we have in our society. And you know, the biggest platform that every American has? That’s to vote. Everybody has that platform, needs to use it when November comes around.”

Mavs’ Carlisle praises Harden

Featured as he was in “The Last Dance” documentary for a few moments trying to defend Michael Jordan, Dallas coach Rick Carlisle used his unusual position to offer a comparison of James Harden’s scoring with Jordan’s.

The greatest difference, he said, is with the style of play of the times. But he said Harden is among the all-time greats.

“Pound for pound, Harden is one of the best scorers in the history of basketball, up there with all the greats,” Carlisle said. “You look at the number of points he’s averaging, it’s breathtaking what he’s done over the past couple of years.”

Harden is on pace to be the first player to average 34 or more points in consecutive seasons since Jordan in 1986-87 and 1987-88.

“In terms of the number of points and the efficiency, there are many comparisons,” Carlisle said. “The dynamics of the game when Jordan played were different. There wasn’t as much emphasis on the 3. Michael Jordan operated in a lot of different areas on the court. So, the game looked different back in those days.

“I have no doubt that if Jordan was playing today, his game could look any way he wanted it to look to score the ball and do what was necessary to win games.”

More words going to be heard

With a technical foul called with 2½ minutes left of Friday’s game between the Trail Blazers and Grizzlies for something that was said from one player ( Zach Collins) to another, the example could have been made to remind teams that more said in games without fans will be heard by officials.

That warning could have been especially clear coming late in a game that went to overtime.

Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni, however, said the topic had come up often enough even before there was an example.

“I don’t think we addressed it officially but everybody’s been talking about it at dinners and lunches and everything else,” D’Antoni said. “So, they know. But they piped in some noise. It was like a regular game.”