Jose Calderon tried to explain Team Spain's controversial slant-eyed pose as a "somewhat loving" gesture of respect. It's a laughably weak explanation, but so far, it's worked ... at least when you consider that the NBA has yet to issue any kind of reprimand or suggestion of possible future punishment. Can you imagine David Stern quietly accepting that lame excuse had Carmelo Anthony or Kobe Bryant pulled a stunt like that? And yet, despite the fact that four NBA players (veterans Calderon and Pau Gasol, as well as soon-to-be rookies Marc Gasol and Rudy Fernandez) took part in the offending pose, Stern has been suspiciously quiet -- and Jason Kidd can smell the hypocrisy in Secaucus all the way from Beijing. From Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports:
"We would've been already thrown out of the Olympics," he told Yahoo! Sports. "At least, we wouldn't have been able to come back to the U.S. ...There would be suspensions." And for his European peers, well, Kidd suggested, "They won't do anything to them. It's a double standard."The photo shoot may have taken place in Spain for an advertisement that ran in a Spanish newspaper featuring players wearing Spanish uniforms, but as Wojo correctly explains, NBA players "are always on the clock."
I'm not sure the NBA can justify handing out actual suspensions (after a Eurobasket game last summer, Darko Milicic ranted to reporters about wanting to rape the referees' mothers and daughters and escaped with a mere verbal reprimand from the Grizzlies), but at the very least, the NBA needs to make some kind of official statement.
Previously on FanHouse:
Spaniards Meant the Slant-Eyed Photo to Be 'Loving'
Spanish Team Should Be Prepared to Get Called Into Principal's Office
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-14-2008 @ 2:42PM
Paula said...
First of all, excuse my mistakes writing, I don't use to speak or write English.
I'm extremely surprised with all the polemic generated by the picture of the Spanish selection of basketball.
It doesn't make sense, at least here in Spain (by the way, greetings from the other side of the Atlantic).
What Calderon says it's true, for us that pose doesn't have any offensive meaning. Does it have in your country?
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8-14-2008 @ 9:17PM
Ryan said...
To those of Asian ancestry, it was historically a gesture that was used to mock them and point out their physical differences.
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8-14-2008 @ 3:23PM
Brian K. said...
why didnt they just cover themselves in yellow body-paint as well?
ignorant people who refuse to admit it are like cancer of this world.
i hope to see the spanish players wear afro wigs and lip buffers when the olympics is held in an african country in the future.
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8-14-2008 @ 5:29PM
Lakergregg said...
Is this the same Jason Kidd who punches his wife?
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8-14-2008 @ 5:40PM
Andrew said...
The NBA can't doing anything about it, Matt. When something happens in international bball, the NBA is not responsible for that. This is not an NBA issue, it's a FIBA issue and it's up to FIBA and IOC (international olympic committee) deciding what to do. There's a rule that states the NBA can't do anything when something happens in international basketball. Just remember what happened during last year's Eurobasket. Darko Milicic got mad at the refs and the NBA didn't suspend him. Why? Because there is a rule that states the NBA can't do anything when something happens during an international basketball event. It's that simple.
Plus, most of the players on the spanish team aren't even NBA players. This is an IOC, FIBA and Spanish League issue. They are the ones who have to deal with it, not the NBA.
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