an olympic sized blunder

so the guardian broke the news that the spanish basketball teams took group pictures with each player appearing to make slit-eye gestures and had this picture run daily in a newspaper ad sanctioned by spain's basketball association. apparently, laker pau gasol, a member of this olympic squad, the coach and everybody else do not find anything offensive with the picture.

to be fair, pau gasol purportedly said, "If anyone feels offended by it, we totally apologise for it." but, he doesn't really apologise for doing it. he just apologised if anyone found it offensive. i guess he doesn't get it either.

jose calderon blogged the following about the event:

I would like to share a story with you about something that happened with the Spanish National Team that someone interpreted incorrectly. It happened in the photo session where the Spanish National Team was introduced; one of our sponsors asked us to pose with a “wink” to our participation in Beijing, we made an oriental expression with our eyes. We thought it was something appropriate and that it would always be interpreted as somewhat loving. Never the less some of the European media did not see it this way.

From here I would like to declare that we have a huge respect for the East and their people, some of my best friends in Toronto are from China and one of our Spanish National Team sponsors is the Chinese brand Li Ning. Anyone who would like to interpret this differently is absolutely confused.

ummmm... calderon definitely doesn't get it. "orientals?" let me be clear, asians are not furniture. and what is the deal with "i have asian friends"? that doesn't mean anything!!! strom thurmond fathered a child with an african american woman yet he was an advocate for segregation of the races. so calderon having asian friends does not translate to having "huge respect" for asian peoples.

so, let me say why i find their conduct offensive:

first, it makes fun of an immutable physical feature.

second, it emphasizes differences in people that has been the basis for treating people unfavorably in education, employment, public accommodations, etc.

third, it is neither funny nor endearing. so why do it?

while the spanish might not find it offensive, other people might (and do). what were they thinking?

the ad showcases a team competing in an international event. their players play internationally -- particularly pau gasol for the lakers (california having a large asian american population) and jose calderon for the raptors (toronto also having a large asian american population). thus, while the ad was intended to appear only locally, the team has an international profile and each has a responsibility to promote tolerance of all cultures -- whether they are at home or abroad.

what is even more disturbing is that it appears that the international olympic committee, the nba, or the lakers/raptors will do nothing about this atrocity.

and the drama begins...

i knew the lakers would have drama in the off-season as a result of them losing the championship... i just didn't realize it would involve former laker, shaquille o'neal, taunting kobe bryant in a very awful rap as obtained by tmz.com and which i got from youtube below.


while shaq apparently issued a statement to espn saying that there was "no issue at all" and that he was just being a "funny freestyler," the rap was neither funny nor artistically good (um, just listen to it).

i am a laker fan but not necessarily a kobe fan. but, come on now. yeah it is true that kobe didn't win the championship for the lakers. after all, the lakers had 1 all star v. the celtics' 3. the lakers weren't even a contender for the championship until after the all star break and the lakers acquired pau gasol. so while it is true that kobe has yet to win a championship without shaq, it is more a function of kobe's supporting cast. shaq, on the other hand, has been fortunate to have won his championship rings with, first, kobe, and second, dwayne wade.

so to me, the freestyle sounded more like spite for the lakers' decision to trade shaq.

let the drama continue...

lakers shocker

no, really.

after bombing the nba finals, kobe bryant said:

"I'm comfortable with what we have," he said. "Whatever Mitch decides to do, he decides to do. It's more of a relaxing summer for me because I know we have an opportunity to win. It's exciting.

"We know we got close and came up a little bit short. I'm excited about the opportunity to get back next year if we're fortunate enough and have a different result."

. . .

"You're all trying to see if I'm going to do Mitch's job for him this summer," Bryant said, smiling. "I'm not. I leave it up to him. He's done a great job of building this team."

let's see how long that lasts given that trade talk rumblings have begun.

to be continued...

lakers' implosion

i didn't watch the game. i knew lakers would lose.

pretty embarrassing.

i'm fairly certain there will be another drama in the off-season about who needs to be traded or wants to be traded, etc., etc. question appears to be more about when will the drama start?

seems to me, someone got contained really well during the entire series....

lakers: a monumental collapse (or the big choke)

after sleeping on it, i still don't understand how the celtics could come back from being down 24 and never leading the game until the last few minutes of the 4th quarter to beating the lakers. so here are my theories:

1. kobe bryant couldn't score on his life. even when the lakers were up by a gazillion points, he only scored 3 points or some ridiculous number in the first half. he was just not having a good series. or perhaps, the trio of kg, paul pierce and ray allen just was no match for the trio of kobe, pau gasol and er, ooops, there's no one else...

2. my friend, b, says it's because phil jackson took a timeout in the 2nd quarter while they were on a run. b claims the lakers' shooting suffered shortly thereafter. i think it actually started suffering after the halftime break. don't know if the players got cold, got too confident or got too something... whatever it was, it definitely did them in.

3. i think it was b's fault cuz he kept on telling me in the first half that the lakers got it in the bag and he got overconfident. thus, jinxing the game. but then again, he could say that i did not believe by doubting that the lakers would win (with good reason!) and thus, it became a self-fulfilling prophecy.

4. or, it could be that i started detoxing on monday and was completely sober while watching the game in a bar and was surrounded by drunk people.

whatever it was, lakers had a monumental collapse. ugh!

ugh

lakers lost game 1 against the celtics in the best of 7.

that said, it is not good for any betting man. thank god i could care less about the la avengers or i'd be really really nervous right now. thanks, mayor villaraigosa!

lakers are back in the nba finals, woohoo!

i haven't been this excited about the lakers since, let me see, 2000. i guess it is because it has been a while since the lakers have been to the championship game. now if only i could score me some tickets to the first game of the nba finals... then it'll be just like 2000.

lakers won, quit whining

i didn't see the game last night (for reasons beyond my control). but people need to stop whining about how derek fisher didn't get called for a foul during the lakers' 93-91 win over the spurs and insinuating that david stern is behind a massive conspiracy to get the lakers and the celtics into the finals.

1. spurs knew they had to win the game
2. spurs were playing on their home court
3. spurs were down 2 points during the winding seconds
4. spurs didn't get it done

spurs lost.

even if fisher got called for a foul, it was no guarantee that spurs would have scored a point, much less two to tie or three to win.

get over it.

great news

college basketball

the la times reports that darren collison is staying for his senior year. this is great news.

jrue holiday, jerime anderson and malcolm lee will be great with collison in the backcourt. and if russell westbrook stays, ucla will arguably have the 1st and 2nd best backcourts in the country. and to have such an excess of excellent players at the point... wow!

by the way, holiday and lee will fit right in with ben howland's defensive mindset. looking forward to next season.

now, if love would just stay...

as for josh shipp "considering his options" to jump to the nba -- it really doesn't make sense. he definitely needs to stay. he has not shown to anyone how he can get out of his shooting slump, which plagued him the second half of the season and into the post-season. bad move, shipp. you best stay.

nba

the la lakers are up 3-1 in the first round of the playoffs series against the denver nuggets. woohoo!

i never liked kenyon martin -- even when he was at cinci. him going to the nba hasn't really changed my opinion of him. but then again, i just never liked that cincinnati team under bob huggins.

on the other hand, i did enjoy carmelo anthony -- especially when he led syracuse to the national championship. too bad he is a nugget.

it's good to be an angeleno

the lakers and the bruins started their respective games at the same time in different cities. but, there was a point during tonight's game where the bruins and the lakers had scored 57 points and their opponents were at 43 (asu) and 45 (miami) respectively. both bruins and lakers, of course, went on to victory.

to me, that was kind of an eerie moment. so, i was reminded of this column.

Too many Saturdays to count. So many that we sometimes forget that in other cities -- in places such as Chicago and San Francisco, New York and Philadelphia -- college games with this kind of magnitude and talent rarely take place.

And Pauley is just the start. You look at what's happening with the Lakers now -- a team on the rise -- and you think, again?

Yes, again. Of course.

You grow up, as I did, in a city such as Seattle and you've got one NBA title and two heroes: Gus Williams and Downtown Freddie Brown.

You grow up in this sun-kissed place and where do you start? 1972 or 1985? 1987 or 2002? Who hangs in your memories? Kareem or Wilt or Shaq? Jerry West or Worthy? Kareem or Kobe?

The Lakers might on occasion have lean and fallow seasons. But always they return. Same goes for the Bruins.

i know that it is too early in the nba season to see if the lakers will go to the championship game (the nba really needs a catchier title a-la "final four" or "superbowl"). i also know that the big dance is too unpredictable to assume that ucla will get to the final four and beyond. although i can only hope.... yep, it's not just la weather, it's basketball too.