At a time President Donald Trump has taken professional sports teams and leagues to task for their disrespect of the national anthem, the National Basketball Association has been forced to pick a side in these conflicts — its season starts in two weeks.

The league sent out a memo to all of its 30 teams. It took the president’s side and firmly articulated its policy that players must stand during the playing of “The Star-Spangled Banner” — or face potential punishment from the league.

“The league office will determine how to deal with any possible instance in which a player, coach or trainer does not stand for the anthem. (Teams do not have the discretion to waive this rule),” the memo said.

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This move from the league may have surprised some people. After all, Trump disinvited the Golden State Warriors from the White House on September 23, a day after player Steph Curry said he would not want to visit the White House even though his team won the NBA championship last season. Curry’s teammate Kevin Durant and coach Steve Kerr have also spoken out against the president in the past.

The disinvite came just a day after Trump sparked controversy at a GOP Senate campaign rally for Luther Strange in Alabama, where the president made his initial comments about NFL players who disrespected the national anthem by electing not to stand.

“Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a b**** off the field right now. Out. He’s fired. He’s fired!'” said the president at the rally.

Curry and Durant were not the only NBA players and coaches to speak out against Trump. LeBron James, or King James as he likes to call himself at times, reacted bitterly to the president’s actions — and so did San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich.

Yet no matter what these players and coaches think, the league is a business — and the NBA does not want to lose money and ratings, as is happening to the NFL, just because some of its players might want to politicize the national anthem.

Related: Fans Fed Up with NFL National Anthem Protests

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While the hundreds of NFL players who knelt while the national anthem played last week to spite the president may think they had a moral win, their actions will likely backfire. From September 21 to 28, the NFL saw its favorability rating drop by nearly half, from 30 percent to 17 percent, according to a Morning Consult poll that surveyed 5,000 adults in the United States.

NFL ticket sales at TicketCity dropped 31 percent last week.

Last season, quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s kneeling protests were the top reason viewers tuned out of the games, according to a survey from pollster J.D. Power, with ratings down an average of over 10 percent for most of the season. With more players kneeling this season, ticket sales for NFL games have plummeted on multiple resale websites.

For instance, NFL ticket sales at TicketCity, an online ticket broker, dropped 31 percent last week; this was more than likely the result of the national anthem debate.

Aside from the fact that standing for the anthem is a sign of respect for our country, our military, and our law enforcement professionals, the potential for lost revenue has to be a driving force in the NBA’s decision to reinforce its anthem rules. It is not a new policy, of course; when NBA player Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, a Muslim, refused to stand for the national anthem on March 12, 1996, the league promptly suspended him.

Related: NFL Anthem Kneelers Are Ignoring Real Issues

Despite averaging 19.2 points per game that season, Abdul-Rauf played sparingly in games until his contract ran out. At 29 years old, he found himself unable to land a job in the league.

The NFL should follow the NBA’s recent course of action soon if it does not want to further alienate a good portion of its audience.

These sports leagues are multibillion-dollar businesses, and since their revenue comes from fans and government-collected tax dollars, it’s not be a good idea for them to irritate either group.

(photo credit, homepage image: TonyTheTiger, Flickr)