John Calipari admits Kentucky kneeling during national anthem wasn’t entirely right

Kentucky basketball coach John Calipari admitted the timing of he and his team kneeling during the national anthem before Saturday’s game vs. Florida was wrong.

Kentucky basketball has a new controversy to deal with in addition to the horrible start to the season. For the first time, Coach Calipari and his team took a knee during the national anthem before their game against Florida on Saturday.

This is not the first time a professional or college team took a knee as a form of protest against injustices in the world. And it’s not the first time this move was met with harsh criticism from fans and non-fans alike. Kentucky is feeling the heat for their actions, which Calipari tried to defend on his radio show after Tuesday night’s loss to Alabama, but admitted it wasn’t the right time to do it either.

John Calipari admits timing was wrong to take a knee during the national anthem

“This had nothing to do with the military. They saw all this stuff going on and felt they needed to do something,” Calipari said.

One of the misconceptions that have been a loud talking point since Colin Kaepernick was the first to kneel was that it was disrespecting the military. It’s not a move to protest the military. It has nothing to do with the military as Calipari said.

"“These kids are good kids. They’ve got good hearts. Again, this political time, probably not a real good time to do it. But when they came in, we really feel strongly, we want you to kneel with us. I put my hand on my heart even though I did kneel.“I have friends in the military, friends in the police. This is our country right now. Anything that’s done you’re either for something, for a party or against a party. That’s not who they are. I like to think their civic duty of voting, they all did. I don’t know how many of you voted when you were 18 or 19. I didn’t. They have.“Their statement was peaceful. It was a peaceful statement. Hopefully going forward we’re going to figure out and help them have some actions that are not in front of the public, that are not in front of the TV, but things they can do to bring people together or make a difference."

Coach Calipari doesn’t think taking a knee was a mistake entirely and defended the decision of his players to take this action at this time despite knowing it would draw some criticism.

“I am not saying that,” Calipari said in response to Jon Hale of The Courier-Journal asking if it was a mistake. “That’s what they wanted to do. The timing of it, with all that’s going on right now, they felt the timing was right because of what they’re seeing on TV. Now they’re like, OK.”

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