Ethical Dilemma #7

You are the President of an American basketball team in the NBA (ex. President of the Toronto
Raptors). Recently two of your team's regular players have decided to protest the country's cur
government, which they think is racist, by sitting instead of standing during the country's nationa
anthem at the start of every game. They see this as their opportunity to protest the governmen
peaceful way. However, some of your team's fans see this as unpatriotic and disrespectful to th
country and its soldiers and have put some pressure on you to take action, while others suppor
players for standing up for what they believe in. Make a decision about what you should do wit
players regarding their protesting actions.

Option #1 Meeting to reframe players

Although there are inequalities and racism in the world, you have to be careful
when you are a popular person so you can’t sit during the country’s national anthem.

PROS CONS

-Do meeting with discretion -Team Image

-We get soldiers support -Lose supporters

-Focus on the Play Off -We may have conflict with anti racism
association

Option #2 Match suspension

Following the event, the council and I even decided to suspend the 2 players
because this is unsportsmanlike

PROS CONS

-Send a strong message to all the -Player can disagree and choose to
players leave the team

-Show everyone that the club does -Lose 2 players for the match
not laugh with anything that is not in-coming
related to sport

-Show the attachment for our country -We can lose some supporters

-Bad team environment

Option #3 We support the 2 players

Everyone has the right to demonstrate as long as it is done with respect

PROS CONS

-We get support from anti racism -Government will probably be

association against us

- Show that every person can -Can be considered as a political

express your opinion. ( famous or
not)
-Show that we support our engage
people against racism
affiliation
-It can make us lose our sponsors
who disagree with it

-It unites the team

We all agree on option number 3, because in 2021 everyone can express

themselves in the way they want, racism has no place in our world and we all
know what is happening against black people in countries like Canada and the
United States so we totally understand why our players are protesting against
our government.

Soumia Ouinkhir
Julien Petiteau
Kilian Fontaine