Tonight closed out with the national anthem and a bit of a focus on the crowd standing during the performance. Throughout tonight’s speeches, I found myself returning to the actions of the various athletes who chose not to play today in protest of racial justice and the unrest in Kenosha. Many of tonight’s speeches seemed to hit at the actions athletes had been using prior to today such as kneeling during the anthems and having "Black Lives Matter" displayed on courts, shirts, and jerseys. In fact, the original plan for several WNBA teams that were to play today was to lock arms and kneel during the anthem as they have done throughout the season. But they didn’t do that. They organized a strike and did not play. As a result, the topical beats in some speeches tonight (including three by speakers with football ties) didn’t land quite as sharply as intended.