Raptors to kneel during O Canada

The Toronto Raptors will treat both national anthems as “one long song” ahead of their opening game of the NBA restart on Saturday, according to coach Nick Nurse.

Two days after every player and coach kneeled for “The StarSpangled Banner” before a pair of games on opening night, the Raptors are expected to follow suit prior to their first game Saturday against the Los Angeles Lakers at Walt Disney World Resort.

When asked about the Canadian anthem, Nurse pointed out that “we certainly have our issues with police brutality in Canada. We don’t want anyone to confuse that, it’s certainly an area Canada needs to work on as well.”

The images of dozens of players and staff kneeling with arms linked during Thursday’s U.S. anthem were powerful. Raptors guard Kyle Lowry, who was at the Los Angeles Clippers vs. Lakers game, called the moment “beautiful.” Playing both the U.S. and Canadian anthems pre-game will create a different moment Nurse said.

“This isn’t about countries, this isn’t about the borders, to me it’s about continuing to shine the light on that we need to do better in (the) police brutality area, we need to do better in the systemic racism area,” the coach said. “That’s not just Canada, America, that’s a lot of places, so we treat that as one long song tomorrow.”

Major League Soccer kicked off its MLS is Back Tournament with a silent ceremony that saw more than 170 Black players from nearly every team ring the field, also at Disney World. The demonstration lasted eight minutes and 46 seconds, the initially reported time a Minneapolis police officer kneeled on the neck of George Floyd, eventually killing him.