Pau Gasol, Spanish hoops team respond to accusations of racism
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The photo, which has been running as a newspaper spread in Spain since Friday, shows all 15 players making the gesture on a basketball court adorned with a Chinese dragon. The photo was part of a publicity campaign for team sponsor Seur and is being used only in Spain. "It was something like supposed to be funny or something but never offensive in any way," Spain's Pau Gasol, center for the Los Angeles Lakers, said. "I'm sorry if anybody thought or took it the wrong way and thought that it was offensive." Point guard Jose Manuel Calderon said the team was responding to a request from the photographer. "We felt it was something appropriate, and that it would be interpreted as an affectionate gesture," Calderon, who plays for NBA's Toronto Raptors, wrote on his ElMundo.es blog. "Without a doubt, some ... press didn't see it that way." International media criticized the photo. London's Daily Telegraph said Spain's "poor reputation for insensitivity toward racial issues has been further harmed" by the photo. Four members of Argentina's women's Olympic soccer team were shown making similar faces in a photograph published last week. Gasol said it was "absurd" people were calling the gesture racist. "We never intended anything like that," he said. The Spanish basketball federation and Seur declined to comment Wednesday. It's not the first time Spanish sports has encountered questions over racist attitudes, and the photo comes at a time when Madrid is vying to host the Olympics. Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton was subjected to abuse at a Barcelona circuit in February, while former Spain coach Luis Aragones also used a racist remark about France striker Thierry Henry to motivate one of his players. Monkey chants rained down on England's black players during an international friendly against Spain in a match played in Madrid in 2004, soon after Aragones' outburst. The federation had just signed a four-year contract extension with Chinese clothing brand Li-Ning shortly after arriving in the Chinese capital for the games. "We have great respect for the far East and its people, some of my best friends in Toronto are originally Chinese, including one of our sponsors, the brand Li-Ning," Calderon wrote. "Whoever wants to interpret it differently is completely confusing it." World champion Spain is 2-0 at the Olympics after rallying to beat China 85-75 Tuesday while consistently getting booed. 
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pau gasol and his idiotic teammates should be kicked out of beijing olympics. how can you insult people of china when you there playing basketball? obviously he's just a complete idiot and an ignorant racist ! as a long time lakers fan, i would ask GM Mitch K to trade him, we do NOT need another racist in wonderful city of LA ! Asians made up of 30% of population in LA, that last thing we need is a Spanish racist playing for the Lakers.
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This amazes me. If this isn't racist, maybe the next ad should feature them all wearing BLACK face masks.
Li NIng should drop them.
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Spaniards, generally, despise all they ignore, and they are very ignorants.
For example, they insult us, the catalan people, saying we are "polacos" (Pole) because we spoke catalan, not spanish. I thing there are a very few people more unpleasant than spaniard people (not all of them, of course)
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Spaniards, generally, despise all they ignore, and they are very ignorants.
They insult us, the catalan people, saying we are "polacos" (Pole) because we speak catalan, not spanish. I thing there are a very few people more unpleasant than spaniard people (not all of them, of course)
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TELL THEM WHAT YOU THINK!!!!
PAU GASOL of the LOS ANGELES LAKERS & JOSE CALDERON of the TORONTO RAPTORS
EMAIL THE NBA (you will have to register)
www.nba.com/email_us/
WRITE TO THE NBA:
David Stern
The National Basketball Association
Attn: Fan Relations
645 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10022
EMAIL LOS ANGELES LAKERS:
www.nba.com/lakers/contact.html
WRITE TO LOS ANGELES LAKERS
Los Angeles Lakers
555 N. Nash Street
El Segundo, CA 90245
USA
Phone: (310) 426-6000
PAU GASOL WEBSITE (No email contact)/Sponsored by Nike
www.paugasol.com/
PAU GASOL'S NIKE SPONSORS
Nike World Headquarters
One Bowerman Drive
Beaverton, OR 97005
Phone: 1-503-671-6453
EMAIL:
http://www.nikebiz.com/contact/
EMAIL TORONTO RAPTORS
www.nba.com/raptors/contact/index.html
TORONTO RAPTORS ADDRESS:
Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment Ltd.
40 Bay St., Suite 400
Toronto, ON
M5J 2X2
CANADA
LIST OF MANAGEMENT/OWNERS TORONTO RAPTORS
http://www.nba.com/raptors/news/mlsel_management.html
JOSE CALDERON'S webpage
www.josemanuelcalderon.com
EMAIL:
email@josemanuelcalderon.com
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This is nothing but absurd...
And the catalonian up here is an idiotic retarded... how can he dare to say something like that? Half of Spanish Basket team is Catalonian... From Gasol brothers, Ricky Rubio, J.C. Navarro, Raül Lopez Mumbrú Rudy (from Mallorca also speaking mallorqui catalan). BTW, Catalans are Spaniards yet...
That gesture is the one teachers use to teach the children the peoples of the world in the kindergarden... anymore in Spain we have very few racism problems, very few. Of course less than any area of the US (People hunting Mexican inmigrants in the border? not here) or France, or Italy (which are all great countries).
In addition... the chinese people in Spain is not complaining on it... but if you want LA Lakers to trade Gasol... well... LA accionist are smart enough to know what to do.
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@ Jason and Lc Chen,
Well Especially Jason. How ignorant are you and how you sound?! People have blown this picture wayyyy out of proportion. From one picture like that Pau Gasol is now deemed a raciest and should be traded out of the Laker team? Shame on you! With Pau Gasol gone off the Laker's the Laker's will be lost without Pau!
Besides the point. Think before you speak and watch what you say. Think about all the times Pau hugged and patted Kobe Bryant on the head after each winning game for the Laker's. Hello!! Kobe is after all black. A raciest hates all kinds of races and not just one and Pau Gasol talked and chatted with Yao Ming before their playoff of Spain and China and even shook Yao Ming's hand. Plus, Pau has been involved with UNICEF and visited children in Africa. Pau is far from prejudice and before you start judging. Take a long deep hard look in the mirrior before you starting pointing the finger. You sir sound more like the raciest.
Yeah. @ LC Chen,
Yeah. I will contact all these people you listed and give Pau nothing but praise! How's that for you?!
Geez! People need to get a serious grip.
Pau said he really did not want to do the slanted eye jester and felt uncomfortable with it and found the jester rather clownish. But, his sponser's taking the picture kept on encouraging it and pushing it. He probably should have put his foot down. Believe me he would have knowing how harsh people were going to come down on him and the Spain team. He is probably regretting he is perhap's to easy going. Probably, Pau's only fault.
NO! Pau does and should never be traded out of the Laker's for something as silly as this!
People need to get over this and move on!
Report Abuse
@ Jason and Lc Chen,
Well Especially Jason. How ignorant are you and how you sound?! People have blown this picture wayyyy out of proportion. From one picture like that Pau Gasol is now deemed a raciest and should be traded out of the Laker team? Shame on you! With Pau Gasol gone off the Laker's the Laker's will be lost without Pau!
Besides the point. Think before you speak and watch what you say. Think about all the times Pau hugged and patted Kobe Bryant on the head after each winning game for the Laker's. Hello!! Kobe is after all black. A raciest hates all kinds of races and not just one and Pau Gasol talked and chatted with Yao Ming before their playoff of Spain and China and even shook Yao Ming's hand. Plus, Pau has been involved with UNICEF and visited children in Africa. Pau is far from prejudice and before you start judging. Take a long deep hard look in the mirrior before you starting pointing the finger. You sir sound more like the raciest.
Yeah. @ LC Chen,
Yeah. I will contact all these people you listed and give Pau nothing but praise! How's that for you?!
Geez! People need to get a serious grip.
Pau said he really did not want to do the slanted eye jester and felt uncomfortable with it and found the jester rather clownish. But, his sponser's taking the picture kept on encouraging it and pushing it. He probably should have put his foot down. Believe me he would have knowing how harsh people were going to come down on him and the Spain team. He is probably regretting he is perhap's to easy going. Probably, Pau's only fault.
NO! Pau does and should never be traded out of the Laker's for something as silly as this!
People need to get over this and move on!
Report Abuse
@ Jason and Lc Chen,
Well Especially Jason. How ignorant are you and how you sound?! People have blown this picture wayyyy out of proportion. From one picture like that Pau Gasol is now deemed a raciest and should be traded out of the Laker team? Shame on you! With Pau Gasol gone off the Laker's the Laker's will be lost without Pau!
Besides the point. Think before you speak and watch what you say. Think about all the times Pau hugged and patted Kobe Bryant on the head after each winning game for the Laker's. Hello!! Kobe is after all black. A raciest hates all kinds of races and not just one and Pau Gasol talked and chatted with Yao Ming before their playoff of Spain and China and even shook Yao Ming's hand. Plus, Pau has been involved with UNICEF and visited children in Africa. Pau is far from prejudice and before you start judging. Take a long deep hard look in the mirrior before you starting pointing the finger. You sir sound more like the raciest.
Yeah. @ LC Chen,
Yeah. I will contact all these people you listed and give Pau nothing but praise! How's that for you?!
Geez! People need to get a serious grip.
Pau said he really did not want to do the slanted eye jester and felt uncomfortable with it and found the jester rather clownish. But, his sponser's taking the picture kept on encouraging it and pushing it. He probably should have put his foot down. Believe me he would have knowing how harsh people were going to come down on him and the Spain team. He is probably regretting he is perhap's to easy going. Probably, Pau's only fault.
NO! Pau does and should never be traded out of the Laker's for something as silly as this!
People need to get over this and move on!
Report Abuse
Your intellect, Laureen, is truly dismal.
A racist does not necessarily hate all races, but by definition discriminates against a race. If a racist had to hate all races, Hitler would not qualify as one since he allied himself with the Japanese. But, perhaps you have no issue with Hitler as a person.
Secondly, it was not the sponsor who took the photo, but a Spanish photographer. The photographer requested the gesture which the entire Spanish team performed. Get your facts straight.
Also, Gasol speaking with Yao and shaking hands does not absolve Gasol of his actions. Yao previously took the high road when Shaquille O'Neal performed his own racist gesture. So, just because Yao chose to be the better man, doesn't mean that Gasol's actions were in any way acceptable.
And if you think that the gesture wasn't offensive, perhaps you should listen to the persistent chorus of boos by the Chinese crowd directed at the Spanish team when Spain played China. How can people be blowing things out of proportion when a gesture insults one-fifth of the population of the world during a time of supposed international goodwill?
I'm guessing that you're White and have never once been ridiculed for your race. Am I correct? Until you have - and learn to spell the word "racist" correctly, keep your high school drop level comments to yourself.
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