Olympic Spanish Basketball Players-Not Funnyby Michele Cheplic | More from this Blogger 14 Aug 2008 05:13 AM Hmm... let me see if I've got this right... Members of the Spanish men and women's basketball teams work hard and earn a trip to China to compete for an Olympic medal. But, before they leave their homeland they decide to pose for a newspaper ad in which they place their hands on their faces and pull the skin near their eyes to make them look as slanted as possible. "Chinese eyes," claims one Spanish player. "How funny." Not so much if you are Chinese. Long story short the chuckleheads on the Spanish basketball team are now apologizing---publicly---for they call "a lapse in judgment." Gee, ya think? Only it took international outrage over the ad for the players to say they were sorry and for Spanish publications to pull the photo of the players poking fun at their Chinese counterparts. "If anyone feels offended by it, we totally apologize for it," Pau Gasol, a Spanish star who also plays for the Los Angeles Lakers, told the New York Times yesterday in Beijing. At least he apologized. Some of Spanish team members refused to admit that what they had done was offensive. Another Spanish player, Jose Calderon wrote on his blog, "We felt it was something appropriate, and that it would be interpreted as an affectionate gesture." Affectionate? Someone ought to consider buying Calderon a dictionary. Other Spanish team members maintain the ad was taken out of context, that it was meant as a joke, and they were pressured to take part in it. Way to take responsibility guys. "All of the Spanish people are close to the Chinese people mentally," one team member said. "We have a very good relationship." Of all the Spanish basketball players who spoke publicly about the ad Gasol appears to be the only one who offered an apology that had any semblance of being sincere. "To me it was little clownish for our part to be doing that," Gasol told reporters. "It was just a bad idea to do that. It was never intended to be offensive or racist against anybody." The Chinese have yet to comment about the ad. However, yesterday, a spokeswoman for the International Olympic Committee said the apology was accepted. The only problem---she's not Chinese. Related Articles: Olympians Sizzling Bodies May Be Too Hot for China Olympic Opening Ceremony Spectacular, But How Much of it was Real? Michael Phelps... A Son and Brother First Everyone's a Winner at the Olympics Learn more about Michele Cheplic  Michele Cheplic was born and raised in Hilo, Hawaii, but now lives in Wisconsin. Michele graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in Journalism. Relevantpopular culture tags User Comments  Michele Cheplic (37339) 16 Aug 2008 09:00 AMDitto Libby somehow I doubt they would be blowing it off if the Games were being held on their home turf and the Chinese took a picture of their basketball team with churros hanging from their mouths and ponchos wrapped around their bodies.  Libby Pelham (12871) 16 Aug 2008 09:04 AMOMG Michele stop - you are killing me - LOL! I can just picture that! juanjo (5) 18 Aug 2008 01:26 AMSo then I assume that you are chinese and that you have felt outragedly offended, right? Then please accept my apologies as Spaniard. I think we all should teach our children that it's silly to apologise without understanding what one has done wrong. Well, you may have difficulties to understand this (I'm sure you're much more aware of asian culture than spanish one) but nobody in Spain would picture that picture as an offensive one, why? As someone already said in some forum, those who think that imitating the Asian almond eyes is racist, it's because they consider people with almond eyes inferior, therefore the problem is with them. You may disagree with this statement, but it's the reality in Spain, we even consider almond-eyes very attractive, that's why people find it difficult to apologise for something that was done with goodwill (the picture is not supposed to be funny but pleasant). And I think this is the right attitude. As opposed to the english language where sorrys and thank yous are everywhere just for the shake of it, in the spanish languages those are only used we we mean it and we tend to use more the tone of the sentence to express feelings, which is not well materialised in writting media. Another history is that actually that picture was offensive for asian people, in which case the first thing to do is to apologise If you don't think that if the question would have been... - are you aware that millions of chinese now feel offended for that picture you took? the answer wouldnt' have been... - wow, really? we didn't mean it that way at all, we're very sorry. then I'm afraid that you are the racist for thinking spanish people won't react like human beings. About the churros thing, I cannot speak for every spaniard, but for sure I'd have found it funny, even more if coming from a english-speaking media.  Valorie Delp (49340) 18 Aug 2008 01:59 AMUm. . .no. . .I don't think so. You are also responsible for how you are perceived whether you intended the perception or not. Not only that but the whole point of the Olympics is international ambassadorship--you just learn to act appropriately. Which the Spanish basketball team did not. Michele Cheplic (37339) 18 Aug 2008 03:09 AMActually, I'm not Chinese, but that's the problem when you assume things. It appears you also assumed (incorrectly) that all of the members of the basketball team wanted to pose for the picture in question. The fact is the majority of them later went public saying they felt pressured by the photographer (who was hired by one of the team's sponsors) to make the eye gesture. They collectively said that they should not have bowed to peer pressure, but hindsight is 20/20. Their comment doesn't appear to support your argument that "nobody in Spain would picture that picture offensive." The team members statement proves that they knew that what they were doing was in poor taste, but they exercised their free will and went along with it anyway. I agree with Valorie that the gesture devalues the unity that should be present at an Interntaional sporting event. As for the photo being racist, if you listen to the team's coach and sponsor tell it you might understand why they considered it "affectionate." However, as one person close to the situation put it: "This photo is defined by its stupidity, not racism." Community Tags basketball team, spanish team, Summer Olympics Discuss this article
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