By wearing their “Los Suns” jerseys in their Cinco de Mayo NBA Western Conference semi-finals victory over the San Antonio Spurs, the Phoenix flew in the face of the old cliche “sports and politics don’t mix.” They rightfully protested a grossly unjust Arizona immigration law.
By Paul M. Banks
The Suns won both athletically and socially tonight. They were victorious both on and off the court. First of all, the idea of sports and politics not mixing is a HUGE misnomer. Every time you sit through military propaganda at the ballpark you hear someone’s political statement. Every time you stand at attention for the Star-Spangled Banner, God Bless America or the announcement of a veteran in attendance, you acknowledge that person’s political statement.
Suns owner Robert Sarver released the following political statement of his own yesterday(you can read it after the jump:
“Our players and organization felt that wearing our ‘Los Suns’ jerseys on Cinco de Mayo was a way for our team and our organization to honor our Latino community and the diversity of our league, the State of Arizona, and our nation. We are proud that 400 players from 36 countries compete in the NBA, and the league and the Suns have always considered that to be a great strength of the NBA.
“The frustration with the federal government’s failure to deal with the issue of illegal immigration resulted in passage of a flawed state law. However intended, the result of passing this law is that our basic principles of equal rights and protection under the law are being called into question, and Arizona’s already struggling economy will suffer even further setbacks at a time when the state can ill-afford them.”
The San Antonio Spurs wanted to join the Suns in their opposition to this unjust law by donning their “Los Spurs” jerseys, but couldn’t because their jerseys are white, and we couldn’t have two teams wearing white on the same night.
More on this comes from Michael Schwartz and his ESPN Suns blog “Valley of the Suns.” I’ve met this guy in person, he’s a really smart kid, and you should definitely read what he has to say.
The new state law, which makes it a crime to illegally be in the country, allows cops to request documents from people who with “reasonable suspicion” seem as if they may not be legal citizens. Opponents of the law fear this will lead to widespread racial profiling.
Steve Nash, who has never been shy to voice his opinion on political issues, strongly opposes the law as well and thinks what the Suns are doing about it is “fantastic.”
“I think the law is very misguided,” Nash told The Associated Press. ”I think it’s, unfortunately, to the detriment of our society and our civil liberties. I think it’s very important for us to stand up for things we believe in. As a team and as an organization, we have a lot of love and support for all of our fans. The league is very multicultural. We have players from all over the world, and our Latino community here is very strong and important to us.”
The Suns — who asked the their players if anybody was in opposition to wearing the “Los Suns” jerseys and had no dissenters — are absolutely doing the right thing here after the D-backs faced protests at road games last week and after national leaders have called for boycotts of Arizona.
Surprisingly, the Suns have not caught much flak on the issue aside from a humorous sign in Portland in which a Blazers fan told Nash that Governor Janet Brewer wants to see his papers. But with the national spotlight firmly fixed on the Suns, it likely was only a matter of time before the Suns became more visibly connected to the issue.
It’s not fair for any sports team to be tied together with any political issue, especially one the majority of the team opposes, but that’s life. The Suns needed to send a message that they oppose this law before that happened to them, and that’s what they are doing by wearing the “Los” on their jerseys.
To read the entire article go here