Spain Basketball Team pictured in Controversial Pose.

[dr8ked]

Spain's Basketball Federation has published a good luck advert for their men's team, the world champions, in which they stand pulling at the sides of their eyes in a slit-eyed gesture.

There is no obvious intention to upset their Olympic hosts in Beijing, but the irresponsible picture is likely to cause controversy and could be interpreted so as to lead to accusations of racism.

Spanish sport has been mired in rows over racism in the last few years. In November 2004 black English footballers were subjected to relentless racial barracking from home supporters in a match in Spain. Before the World Cup there were calls for Luis Aragones, then Spain's football coach, to be sacked after he called Thierry Henry a "black ****". And last year Lewis Hamilton suffered racist abuse during testing for the Spanish grand prix near Barcelona.

Spain play their first match in the Olympic basketball competition against Greece at 7.30am BST today.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008...picsbasketball

[niko]

It amazes me how silly people can be. Why the f*** would anyone do that?

[Godfather]

Spain's Basketball Federation has published a good luck advert for their men's team, the world champions, in which they stand pulling at the sides of their eyes in a slit-eyed gesture.

There is no obvious intention to upset their Olympic hosts in Beijing, but the irresponsible picture is likely to cause controversy and could be interpreted so as to lead to accusations of racism.

Spanish sport has been mired in rows over racism in the last few years. In November 2004 black English footballers were subjected to relentless racial barracking from home supporters in a match in Spain. Before the World Cup there were calls for Luis Aragones, then Spain's football coach, to be sacked after he called Thierry Henry a "black ****". And last year Lewis Hamilton suffered racist abuse during testing for the Spanish grand prix near Barcelona.

Spain play their first match in the Olympic basketball competition against Greece at 7.30am BST today.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008...picsbasketball

Racism should have no part of sports. I find myself losing respect for several of these players who I once admired.

[picc84]

Shouldn't surprise anyone about Spain.

[RoseCity07]

The only one that looks like he is actually pulling is Pau in the upper right corner. The rest look like they are just pointing to their eyes lol. People always need to find something to get up set about. It's a silly picture.

[iamgine]

What can we say...everybody want to be Chinese these days.

[Maniak]

wow

there goes my respect for spain

this is also about the 3rd thread on it.

[Interminator]

How is this racist?

These guys are just pointing to their heads.

Is there a hidden racism in this that I just dont see.

[bigkingsfan]

Looks like the "think" gesture to me when I first saw it.

[AppleNader]

I really really want this to come out all over the Chinese media and outrage to occur. The only reason I want this is because USA BAsketball is going to need all the help it can get against Spain. If we have the entire stadium booing the sh&t out of Spain and cheering for us, it will be de-facto home cout advantage. The most important thing is while this may not have a definite impact on our play, it couldn't hurt.

[Meticode]

How is this racist?

These guys are just pointing to their heads.

Is there a hidden racism in this that I just dont see.

Becuase they're not pointing to their heads, they're pulling their eyes back to look chinese or asian. You can clearly see Pau Gasol doing it and a couple other players.

[mattreis62]

Must be a slow day at work for some people, there's like 3 threads on this. Who cares?

[Eldrunko247]

i guess being a homo is not enough for pau. he now wants to be a racist homo.

[starface]

so what?

people are WAY too sensitive these days.

what if they were playing ireland and they all wore orange mops on their heads? bet everyone here would think its funny and not gravely offensive.

for some reason i guess its off-limits to make fun of blacks, chinese, and mexicans. why? its not like the spanish team is burning their houses down. they're ribbing them over the stereotype of their eyes. big deal.

people just seem to LOOK for reasons to cry and get offended these days. seriously, get real.

[Eldrunko247]

so what?

people are WAY too sensitive these days.

what if they were playing ireland and they all wore orange mops on their heads? bet everyone here would think its funny and not gravely offensive.

for some reason i guess its off-limits to make fun of blacks, chinese, and mexicans. why? its not like the spanish team is burning their houses down. they're ribbing them over the stereotype of their eyes. big deal.

people just seem to LOOK for reasons to cry and get offended these days. seriously, get real.

get real? i dare you to make that gesture to my face. you'll see what "get real" means. so the world olympics means let's go make fun of the host country's ethnicity? everything the olympics doesn't stand for.