Spanish Basketball Team Poses for Racist Photo

The spirit of the Olympic Games is like none other. Countries torn with civil-conflict unite, wars are held for suspended treaty, and sportsmanship is the official language. Only a few days ago, Georgian and Russian medalists posed together for what will be remembered as a timeless photograph as their two nations were currently at war. Even war isn’t enough for the two to congratulate each other’s athletic excellence.

Today however, a photo has spread across the world that is anything but spectacular. The Spanish basketball team, including NBA stars Pau Gasol, his brother Marc Gasol, and Jose Calderon, posed for an advertisement for a Spanish courier company pulling the skin around their eyes back giving a “slit-eye” appearance while standing center-court with a Chinese Dragon beneath their feet. According to reports, the sponsor of the team requested that the team pose making a “wink and giving a smile” in one of the four photographs taken. Making matters even worse, the jerseys that the team is wearing in the photo and during the Olympic Games are made by the Li Ning – a Chinese athletic goods company.

Though the team defends that this photo was not intended to be offensive, the nation may face serious consequences. In addition to likely turning the host nation crowd against the team for the rest of the Games, the bad feelings will likely carry through this fall when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) selects the host of the 2016 Olympic Games. Of the final four cities including the Spanish capitol of Madrid.

This is not the first time that controversy has surrounded Spanish sports. In 2004, the world governing body of soccer, FIFA, fined the Spanish Football Federation after fans were heard directing “monkey chants” to a British player of African decent during a “friendly” in Madrid.

All in all, I am astonished and appalled by this. I really could not sum this up better than “That Ain’t Right.”