Spain Basketball Team Pictured In Controversial Pose

Kobe8Fan · by **Kobe8Fan** on Mon Aug 11, 2008 5:09 pm

Spain's Basketball Federation has published a good luck advert for their men's team, the world champions, in which they stand pulling at the sides of their eyes in a slit-eyed gesture.

There is no obvious intention to upset their Olympic hosts in Beijing, but the irresponsible picture is likely to cause controversy and could be interpreted so as to lead to accusations of racism.

Spanish sport has been mired in rows over racism in the last few years. In November 2004 black English footballers were subjected to relentless racial barracking from home supporters in a match in Spain. Before the World Cup there were calls for Luis Aragones, then Spain's football coach, to be sacked after he called Thierry Henry a "black [Swearing is not permitted at Clublakers. You must edit this post prior to submitting.]". And last year Lewis Hamilton suffered racist abuse during testing for the Spanish grand prix near Barcelona.

Spain play their first match in the Olympic basketball competition against Greece at 7.30am BST today.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/au ... basketball

Pau.... (-_-)

jBL · by **jBL** on Mon Aug 11, 2008 5:21 pm

SPAIN 81 66 GREECE

FERNANDEZ Rudy 22 MIN 16 PTS 2 REB 1 BLK 2/3 3FGM :jam2:

GASOL Pau 20 MIN 11 PTS 7 REB
CALDERON Jose 24 MIN 13 PTS 4 REB 4 TO

Kobe Bryant 8 · by **Kobe Bryant 8** on Mon Aug 11, 2008 5:24 pm

What a bunch of morons.

jimbo327 · by **jimbo327** on Mon Aug 11, 2008 7:10 pm

Well, that's not going to do well with the Chinese public. But I don't think that will ever get published in China.

I'm still unsure who is more stupid, the Spanish Basketball Team or the people who thought publishing that as a good luck advert.

wrathletik · by **wrathletik** on Mon Aug 11, 2008 11:26 pm

F those ignorant pricks.

grego · by **grego** on Tue Aug 12, 2008 1:23 am

Pretty lame of those guys, especially some of the more well known Spaniards.

blocks · by **blocks** on Tue Aug 12, 2008 1:40 am

I can't call any of them racists for this, but I will call them ignorant as hell.

mikex25 · by **mikex25** on Tue Aug 12, 2008 2:33 am

If u were Asian and this type of racist stereotype that has been stuck with you for decades u would think it's racist.

Satan · by **Satan** on Tue Aug 12, 2008 2:58 am

I can perhaps understand (not excuse) the ignorance of some of the players on the team, particularly those who have never traveled or been exposed to other cultures, but guys who have played in the NBA for years should know better. Pau Gasol has definitely dropped a notch in my estimation.

blocks · by **blocks** on Tue Aug 12, 2008 3:49 am

mikex25 wrote:If u were Asian and this type of racist stereotype that has been stuck with you for decades u would think it's racist.

Well the act itself can certainly be labeled racist, it is important to hold judgment upon the individuals themselves. I do not take calling someone a "racist" lightly at all. That said, it is obvious simply by their participation in this photo shoot that they are ignorant. And there is a great difference between being racist and being ignorant.

A racist is not necessarily ignorant. Ignorance roughly translates to "not knowing," while true racism in my mind IS knowing and STILL holding that prejudice.

Happo · by **Happo** on Tue Aug 12, 2008 4:40 am

Hi i'm new on this forum althought there have been some moths that i've been reading it.

i think some of you are missunderstanding the situation about this photo.
i think someone in the spanish federation tryied to take a funny photo. you can argue that it's no funny but it has nothing to do about racism. If the olimpics were played in the US this photo would have been with cowboy hats, and i don't thin you will consider it an offense. In the other hand you can check the light quality and this is not an official photo for shure.

Anyway i don't think there is nothing about racism or ignorance. it's just an stupid sense of humor from somebody in the federation, not a players foult

excuse me for my english, i keep trying

last stand · by **last stand** on Tue Aug 12, 2008 4:49 am

some of you guys are waaaaaaaaaay to angry over this photo

is it stupid? yes

is it ignorant? yes

is it worth all the controversey its causing? hell no

racism is a strong word that often times gets thrown around by soft people

blocks · by **blocks** on Tue Aug 12, 2008 5:08 am

last stand wrote:some of you guys are waaaaaaaaaay to angry over this photo

is it stupid? yes

is it ignorant? yes

is it worth all the controversey its causing? hell no

racism is a strong word that often times gets thrown around by soft people

Very few are calling them "racists"...

maber · by **maber** on Tue Aug 12, 2008 6:42 am

Hello from Spain!!

I can say that this photo, is far away to be considered "racism" in Spain.. at least a little bit funny.

Anyway, I'll fire the man at the spanish feredation who had the idea, for not be sure that it could be racist in other countries.

leakbrewergator · by **leakbrewergator** on Tue Aug 12, 2008 7:57 am

Spain has consistently proving to be one of the more racist countries in the world. What they did to Henry and other black soccer players is indefensible.

This just adds to their history of being idiots.

ShowtimeACB · by **ShowtimeACB** on Tue Aug 12, 2008 11:16 am

leakbrewergator wrote:Spain has consistently proving to be one of the more racist countries in the world. What they did to Henry and other black soccer players is indefensible.

This just adds to their history of being idiots.

And you just proved u r even worst.

ShowtimeACB · by **ShowtimeACB** on Tue Aug 12, 2008 11:20 am

last stand wrote:some of you guys are waaaaaaaaaay to angry over this photo

is it stupid? yes

is it ignorant? yes

is it worth all the controversey its causing? hell no

racism is a strong word that often times gets thrown around by soft people

What can u expect, it comes from an english media, they just love to made up this kind of [Swearing is not permitted at Clublakers. You must edit this post prior to submitting.].

This picture is so racist as an american guy wearing a torero outfit could be.

Weezy · by **Weezy** on Tue Aug 12, 2008 2:36 pm

ShowtimeACB wrote:This picture is so racist as an american guy wearing a torero outfit could be.

Give me a break with the rationalizations, this picture is racist whether you believe it is or not. Mocking a people's eyes with an offensive stereotype is racist, it's not even close to the same as wearing that outfit. All this picture is missing is the rest of the Krusty the Clown routine, the big giant buck teeth and them all saying 'me so solly'.

leakbrewergator · by **leakbrewergator** on Tue Aug 12, 2008 5:54 pm

ShowtimeACB wrote:
leakbrewergator wrote:Spain has consistently proving to be one of the more racist countries in the world. What they did to Henry and other black soccer players is indefensible.

This just adds to their history of being idiots.

And you just proved u r even worst.

I don't know, you're the one defending a bunch of racists...... :man3:

dychoi · by **dychoi** on Tue Aug 12, 2008 6:28 pm

I think the fact that it involves the Chinese makes it seem less racist to many people.

If the Olympics were taking place in a place like South Africa and the Spanish national basketball team did something equivalent to what they did in this photo (I can't think of any right now), I'm sure a lot more Americans would be crying racism.

Racism in America tends to be most obsessed with black and white.

keyindabox · by **keyindabox** on Tue Aug 12, 2008 8:42 pm

Dumb.

Dumb.

Oh yeah, dumb.

GinoDB · by **GinoDB** on Tue Aug 12, 2008 9:41 pm

this puts the Lakers in an odd spot ,, on one side they have Gasol participating in this , and on the other they have Kobe who is worshiped there and Sun who plays there .I doubt this would affect the Lakers in any way though.

KB24 · by **KB24** on Tue Aug 12, 2008 10:42 pm

I'm kinda pissed at Gasoft right now...

melo061 · by **melo061** on Tue Aug 12, 2008 11:20 pm

KB24@CL wrote:I'm kinda pissed at Gasoft right now...

Sad that a moderator would be reduced to such levels.

Kenrae · by **Kenrae** on Wed Aug 13, 2008 12:20 am

That photo is not racist (or that was not the intention at all), but it's a stupid thing to do. Anyone with half a brain would know that in today's world of extreme political correctness it would be controversial (but not in China it seems, AFAIK). I'd inmediately fire the person responsible for this.

Spain Basketball Team Pictured In Controversial Pose

Spain Basketball Team Pictured In Controversial Pose

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