Jay Leno, on Wednesday’s “Los Suns” Cinco de Mayo game in Phoenix: “Talk about making a point. The Phoenix Suns are wearing jerseys written in Spanish, made in China, modeled after their best player, Canadian Steve Nash. That is America!” Indeed. Wednesday’s game between the Spurs and Suns was a lot bigger than your normal NBA playoff tilt, whether the participants wanted to recognize it or not. When Al Sharpton shows up at your game wearing a jersey in Spanish, that’s noteworthy.
It was all, of course, for the big Cinco de Mayo SB1070 protest, in which about a thousand people gathered outside U.S. Airways Center and demonstrated against Arizona’s new anti-illegal immigration law. Sharpton was low-key, as usual:
“Let me get this right,” Sharpton told the congregation, “if I want to give [Arizona] money, I’m welcome. But if I want to make sure that you do not profile and discriminate against my brothers and sisters, you tell me to mind my own business. Well I come to tell you, that when you mess with our people whether they’re brown, whether they’re white, whether they’re black, that is my business.”
More Sharpton, as quoted in the Phoenix New Times:
“We’re going to bring them in the spirit of the freedom riders,” he stated, invoking the memory of civil rights activists past. “And we’re going to walk the streets of Arizona, freedom walkin’, arm in arm. And if you lock up one, you’re going to have to lock us all up. Rev, you say, why are they gonna lock you up? Because none of us is going to have our papers. So you’re going to have to take us all.”
Even with that speech echoing down the hall, and even though Suns’ management has admitted that wearing Los Suns jerseys against the Spurs was, at least in part, to show solidarity with protesters, Suns coach Alvin Gentry apparently didn’t get the memo. Gentry, to the New York Times:
“We’re wearing these jerseys just because it’s a national holiday, it’s Cinco de Mayo. We’re wearing it because of the diversity we have in the state of Arizona, and we’re wearing it because of the diversity in the NBA.”
Meanwhile, many fans didn’t like the fact that sports was mixing with politics. From Sports Business Daily:
In Phoenix, Craig Harris reports one “outraged fan” said that she “shredded her four lower-level tickets to Wednesday’s game … in protest” of the Suns’ decision. The Arizona Republic yesterday received “84 letters to the editor,” 79 of which were opposed to the move.
I hope that the tickets were shredded in a creative way. Scissors = lame. Wood chipper = great. Throwing them into a cage with an angry wildcat = awesome. Having them torn up by guys you hired in front of Home Depot = ironic.
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Around 3,000 Protesters March Outside “Los Suns” Game In Phoenix [Sports Business Daily]
Al Sharpton Wears “Los Suns” Jersey During March to Arizona Capitol Protesting SB 1070 [Feathered Bastard -- Phoenix New Times]
Charles Barkley: Pro sports should boycott Arizona [Out of Bounds]
