Harvey+Araton

It is no secret that football， with its often anonymous foot soldiers in the trenches （many without fully guaranteed contracts）， is a sport more designed for group expression. The N.B.A.， said the former commissioner David Stern， has long been a laboratory focused on the behavior of individuals.

由于無名球員眾多（很多人沒有全額保障合同），美式足球注定適合群體表達(dá)，這已經(jīng)不是一個秘密了。按照前總裁大衛(wèi)·斯特恩的說法，NBA很久以前就是一個專注于個體行為的實(shí)驗(yàn)室了。

It has been 21 years since the N.B.A. punished a player for refusing to stand for the national anthem. And that player， Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf， paid a much greater price than the nearly $32，000 he lost for a one-game suspension.

距離NBA懲罰一名拒絕在國歌儀式時起立的球員已經(jīng)過去了21年。那名球員——穆罕默德·阿卜杜爾-拉烏夫，付出的代價，遠(yuǎn)比一場禁賽損失的32000美元大得多。

A flashy 6-foot-1 guard and the Denver Nuggets leading scorer for the 1995-96 season， AbdulRauf refused to stand because of personal and religious beliefs. He negotiated a fast truce with the league， acquiescing to its rule requiring players to stand for the anthem in an acceptable posture -while also cupping his hands and bowing his head in adherence to his Muslim faith.

身高1.85米，技術(shù)出眾的阿卜杜爾-拉烏夫是掘金1995-96賽季的控球后衛(wèi)，因?yàn)閭€人及宗教信仰原因，他拒絕在國歌儀式中起立。他迅速與聯(lián)盟達(dá)成和解，認(rèn)同球員需要以特定姿勢出現(xiàn)在國歌儀式的要求——但仍然按照伊斯蘭教義合掌，低頭。

He was also traded soon after to the Sacramento Kings， and by 1998， at 29， he was out of the league. He became， in essence， a cautionary tale as Colin Kaepernick pursues a case against the N.F.L. accusing it of colluding to deny him a job over his kneeling for the anthem last season.

沒過多久他就被交易到了薩克拉門托國王，1998年，29歲的他被迫退出聯(lián)盟。實(shí)際上，和上賽季因?yàn)樵趪鑳x式中單膝下跪而起訴NFL串通導(dǎo)致他沒有工作的科林·卡佩尼克一樣，阿卜杜爾-拉烏夫的故事成了一個警示錄。

Abdul-Rauf did not get much support from his peers.

阿卜杜爾-拉烏夫沒有從周圍人那里得到太多支持。

"If you ask most players from that era， theyd say they regretted not supporting him more than they did，" Buck Williams， who in 1996 was president of the National Basketball Players Association， said in a recent telephone interview. "He was kind of left out on an island."

“如果問經(jīng)歷過那個時期的大部分人，他們會說對沒能更支持他感到遺憾?！?996年擔(dān)任球員工會主席的巴克·威廉姆斯最近接受電話采訪時表示，“他有點(diǎn)像被遺棄在荒島上一樣?！?/p>

That was then， a period largely defined by the soaring popularity of the famously apolitical Michael Jordan. This is now， an era of exploding social media leverage in which N.B.A. player and coaching personalities - more so than their N.F.L. counterparts —have established themselves as recognizable commentators.endprint