UPDATE: Spain's basketball team responds to the international controversy now surrounding their dumbass photo: Gasol, Calderon question fuss over photo. They really don't get it. Says Paul Gasol, "It was supposed to be a picture that inspired the Olympic spirit." I'm baffled as to how they worked out this brilliant idea. More here: Should Spanish Insensitivity Should Be Punished?
This Yahoo! Sports story raises a very interesting question: Spain photo exposing NBA double standard? There are indeed several NBA players on Spain's team, including the Lakers' Gasol and Toronto's Jose Calderon. So where is the NBA in all of this? If the offending photo was of Team USA, wouldn't they be all over this? Maybe.
Oh, by the way, the chink-eye photo pose isn't limited to the men's team. Spain's Olympic women's basketball team got in on the slant-eyed photo pose action too (above).
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Some follow-up on that racist photo from the other day, of Spain's basketball team giving everybody the "chink eye." The image has since picked up quite a bit of mainstream attention over the last day (it's currently on Yahoo's front page as I write this), and has got a lot of people pretty damn mad: Spanish basketball team poses for offensive picture.
More here: Spain's 'Slant-Eye' Team Photo Stirs Ire. Prior to the Games, the team posed for an advertisement in the Spanish-language newspaper La Marca. In honor of their upcoming trip to Bejing, the entire team pulled their eyes back in a slant—a racist gesture many of us Asians know and unfortunately have had to deal with in our lives. Back on the grade school playground.
The New York Times reports that Spain's basketball team is sponsored by Li-Ning Footwear, a Chinese company founded by Li Ning, the final torchbearer during the Olympic Opening Ceremony: Spanish Ad Spurs Charges of Racism. The ad apparently references the Spanish team recently extending their contract with the footwear giant for another four years. What a nice way to acknowledge that.
Interestingly, Spain beat China in basketball today, 85-75 in overtime: Powerhouse Spain Puzzles on Hardcourt. It's being reported that normally polite, sedate Chinese crowd "vigorously booed" the Spanish basketball team, though it's uncertain whether they were actually reacting to the photo, or just decided to get a little rowdy. Whatever the case, it's generally not a good idea to get a nation of over a billion people mad at you.
There's stupid, and there's insensitive... and then there's what the hell were they thinking? Believe it or not, Madrid is currently considered one of the frontrunners—along with Chicago, Tokyo and Rio De Janiero—to host the 2016 Summer Games. The site will be announced next year.
Last week, Spain appealed to China to support the country's bid to host the Games. Could this supreme display of ignorance jeopardize Madrid's chances? While I don't believe in penalizing an entire country for the idiotic actions of fifteen men... it would certainly be one hell of a lesson.
