At practice one afternoon in December, the South Carolina women’s basketball players spread out on a carpeted space away from the court. The university president wanted to talk to them.

Before games this season, most of the players, wanting to bring attention to systemic racism, had been sitting during the national anthem. Even with few fans in the arena, the act hadn’t gone unnoticed:There were boos, threats of boycott on Twitter and a Facebook rant describing the players as “unappreciative b----es” and suggesting their head coach be imprisoned as an American traitor.