James Joyner notes a story I was going to blog last night: Los Suns Cinco de Mayo Jerseys.
The stated purpose of the Los Suns jerseys is allegedly twofold: 1) to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, and 2) to protest the new Arizona immigration law.
James, however, notes a third reason (quite frankly, the most important reason) which I was going to point out as well: “if they happen to make a ton of money selling jerseys, that’s a consequence they’re willing to live with.”
Indeed.
The teams do this to make money—and that is really all one needs to know to understand the choice. They do it with St. Patrick’s Day jerseys as well.1
While the immigration law related aspect of this does overtly inject politics into the situation, we seem to go through outrage over Spanish language jerseys at this time of year on a regular basis. For example, see my post on Michelle Malkin’s outrage on the subject from 2024: ¡El horror de los Rangers!
Indeed, as James post notes with a photo, Spanish-version jerseys are nothing new. Here’s another example: Los Spurs (whom I hope beats Los Suns tonight!).
- Which no one freaks out about, oddly enough. [↩]
May 5th, 2024 at 7:56 pm
From the team executive perspective, I agree with you. But the athletes doing this, when it could be unpopular, strikes me as more politics then business. Steve Nash definitely seems worked up. There are a ton of players who wouldn't do this because it might offend potential customers for their Nike deals. So good on the players, at least.
May 6th, 2024 at 11:20 am
I don't mind the Los Suns thing for Cinco de Mayo, but I am irritated that they've brought politics into basketball. Keep politics and entertainment separate, people!
My main gripe, though: Los *Suns*?? Come on, it's Los *Soles* people!
May 6th, 2024 at 8:40 pm
Technically, I think it should really be “Las” Spurs, since in Spanish “Espuela” is feminine. Thus, “El Heat”, “Los Suns”, “Las Spurs”.
Just sayin'.