Dwyane Wade Needs To Respect Our Anthem

Dwyane Wade caused quite the stir during Game 3 when he opted to continue to shoot around while the beginning of the Canadian national anthem was being sung.

Now, I can handle Toronto being generally overlooked by the American media, even after going up 2-1 in this series.

I can even handle radio pundits talk on all ends of how our best stars will be on their way to the Los Angeles Lakers by next year, even though there isn’t a damn thing to be found there except maybe a New York Knicks 2.0 front office and both Ron Artest 2.0 and 1.0.

But you know it’s sad when one of the games unofficial global ambassadors finds it necessary to show up a national anthem for the sake of warmup habits.

I wonder, what would the head offices in New York would have to say if Wade did the same thing to the Chinese national anthem and their 2 billion consumers and investors? A country mind you that has still yet to make even a tenth of the dent Canada, a country literally less than a twentieth in size by population, in the game of basketball.

Oh and Wade, that ball and hoop you were shooting on? Yeah, that was invented by a Canadian too.

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Look, I get it, Canada has never been a thing to be feared or even respected at times in a lot of Americans eyes, especially in sports.

Unless it’s hockey, Canadian athletes who go to the United States for any extended amount of time tend to get asked some questions that can range from the inquisitive, to the downright disrespectful and sad.

We get that most of the time many of you would rather go to the bathroom or be on your phones than stand at attention for anything that isn’t “God Bless America” or “The Star Spangled Banner”, an anthem mind you, that was written while you were invading our country.

But seriously, if I have to stand at attention for an anthem that people are willing to fistfight me over if I don’t, and then turn around and see that while my country’s pride is on display, then for as much as I like to think that this country has taken steps forward in branding itself in this game, I was clearly mistaken.

So how do we remedy this? We do like the Soviets did, we win.

So with that, I’ll try to make this crystal clear because I doubt most Americans understand how much this can upset someone who isn’t American.

Go Canada, go Raptors, and I hope they stick it to Dwyane Wade and every pundit that has written this team off because they never watched a single game of this team until two weeks ago. Most importantly, I hope they stick it to the fanboys and girls that are already marking down their calendars for all the “LeBron vs. Wade” games supposedly happening later this month.

It’s not happening.

And the best part? Toronto vs. Cleveland games will be better to watch from a basketball X’s and O’s perspective.

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