The Phoenix suns defeated the San Antonio Spurs last night 110-102 to take a two games to none lead in their best of seven series but that wasn’t the whole story from last nights game. The Suns in a showing of protest decided to wear their, “Los Suns” jerseys to show their opposition to the new controversal immigration law.
Now no one believes that Suns forward, Amare Stoudemire or his teammates is politically savvy enough or bold enough to interject themselves into such a devisive issue. Instead, Robert Sarver, the Suns managing partner is the one who made the decision to have his players wear the jerseys. “The Los Suns” jerseys have been used before, earlier this season, not as a political ploy but as apart of the NBA’s “Noche Latina,” campaign geared at bringing in more fans from the latino community.
Suns players Grant Hill and Steve Nash enjoying their win in their Los Suns attire
Sarver told the media the night before the game how he felt about the law, calling it, “mean spirited.” “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,” said Sarver.
On this cinco de mayo, the suns decided to do what has been a rare occurence in sports, where athletes stand for something outside the larger context of their sport and use their promote status to express their agenda. Muhammad Ali the most obvious example. Whats different about this case is that it wasnt the Suns players who felt so sour on this immigration law that they all collectively agreed to where the jerseys. It was Sarver who chose to place his players in this debate, and nobody cares about Robert Sarver. People do care about the Suns however but in the eyes of Senior, Jacques Beauvaus, you shouldnt care what the suns think about immigration either.
“I’m really just watching the games to watch the games,” said Beauvaus. “If I wanted to watch something about immigration I woud have just changed it to CNN.”
Beauvaus also implied people shouldn’t be forming their political agenda on the dress code of a professional Basketball team.
“Basketball and politics shouldnt mix. These are all multi-millionaire players so what do they honestly know about some immigration law. These laws don’t really affect them and people better not be basing their decisions on what an NBA team does.”
