Stauskas, Henderson among Sixers players to speak out about national anthem controversy

By Josh Liddick, Sports Talk Philly Staff

One of the big controversies that occurred during the pregame of Wednesday night's basketball matchup between the 76ers and the Thunder was the scheduled singer of the National Anthem, Sevyn Streeter being ousted as the performer for wearing a "We Matter" t-shirt as she was ready to go up to the microphone.

The shirt's saying stems from the outcry of the "Black Lives Matter" movement that has been prevalent over the course of the last several months, especially coming up frequently in the sporting world.

Sports Talk Philly editor Brandon Apter had the full story in his article published after the game on Wednesday.

As the Sixers reacted rather abruptly to the situation on Wednesday, the overall sense in the locker room after the game was that there was a consensus of outcry from most of the players.

Many players expressed concerns of whether or not the team handled the situation the right way, and many felt that they should do something to react to this whole situation.

Sixers analyst and writer for Philly.com and the Inquirer, Keith Pompey tweeted that Sixers' Nik Stauskas and Gerald Henderson had words to say to represent the team as a whole in the Sevyn Streeter national anthem situation.

Nik Stauskas shared the #Sixers players' thoughts on Sevyn Streeter national anthem incident.More to come.

— Keith Pompey (@PompeyOnSixers) October 27, 2016

Stauskas basically talked about how the players were "disappointed that she wasn't able to sing and she wasn't given that opportunity," and how the team realized that they "understand that everything comes along with that it being a nationally televised game."

Gerald Henderson additionally gave what the team talked about and how they planned to address the situation going forward.

… We see that there’s a lot of thing going on in the world right, well in our country. …

— Keith Pompey (@PompeyOnSixers) October 27, 2016

… We will come together as a team and think about some things that we will be able to do."

— Keith Pompey (@PompeyOnSixers) October 27, 2016

The Sixers will play against the Atlanta Hawks on Saturday night at the Wells Fargo Center, and it has yet to be seen whether or not the team will do anything to protest the organization's decision before the start of the game.