Sports are largely a great place for people to come together. What it does is give people, or in particular fans a common goal to be excited about and to come together on.

There is an antagonist (the opposite team), and they have a group of fans behind them rooting for them to win.
It’s all in the spirit of competition, but also an escape from the rigors of life, and issues that come with it. Even the best athletes will say they can let go of their problems once they step on the court, or the field.

There are times when issues penetrate sports, although some are less controversial than others are. Cases where high profile athletes stand up against injustice such as Jesse Owens.

There are other cases such as Muhammad Ali doing the same, and he was willing to give up boxing for his own beliefs. There was a protest not long ago (albeit less radical) where players were adamant bout ousting Donald Sterling for a racist rant caught on tape, which ultimately led to him selling the Los Angeles Clippers and a lifetime ban from the NBA.

The latest incident is with San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick refusing to stand for the national anthem in protest of what he feels is injustice, sparked memories in a conversation on SiriusXM NBA Radio with Denver Nuggets former coach Bernie Bickerstaff about a similar protest he had to deal with.

Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf aka Chris Jackson, protested by not standing during the Star Spangled Banner, because of his Muslim beliefs in 1996. He later reached an agreement with the NBA to stand and close his eyes while bowing his head as the song was sang, and it worked out for everyone.

It stirred a buzz of controversy at a time when social media did not exist, and Bickerstaff recalls it completely.

It caused a lot of distractions, you know. At that point, the number of media members was not quite as resounding as it is today. But it was still a distraction. I think we were going into Chicago immediately after that happened. And when we got off the plane in Chicago on the bus going into the hotel, his players, his teammates, had to actually form a line so that he could get off and walk down that line to be shielded from the media. And they were Number one, completely blind. Had no idea that was about to transpire.

We had him come in, to sit down and have a conversation, and the conversation was about, the one thing that we have in this life is freedom of choice, and with that choice comes consequences. And my conversation with him was simply that one of the guys I probably admired most at that time was Muhammad Ali, because not only did he make a decision not to step forward but it was the part of it, the things that he gave up, and our message basically to [Abdul-Rauf] was ‘Hey, that’s the guy I admire. If you really feel that way then you go home, and you give us a call and let us know you’re willing to walk away from that contract, and then I can really, really, respect that…

When he got home, we got a call and he said ‘I think I want to be on the trip.’ And that’s our understanding, if you’re on the trip, then you’re standing.

Bickerstaff had to keep his team focused on winning. It was after all his job to win games, to focus on beating the Sonics in the playoffs later, but they had to work their way to that point.

On the other hand, there is a man who is standing by his values, and views them largely more important than sports and basketball, and it is hard to ask anyone to compromise their values, in this case, something would be lost no matter which decision was made.

Abdul-Rauf’s compromise with the NBA did help cut the controversy down a great deal, but he feels his career was cut short because of what he did.

The Nuggets missed the playoffs that year, but the incident of that time is a part of the league's history.

The goal for an athlete standing for their value is to do it without causing more harm than good. There are no good or bad people, no enemies or friends but just as sports unite us, we have to learn to deal with situations together.

That is what sports is all about at its core.

Working together.