Los Suns Also Rise: Phoenix Suns Win in More Ways Than One
Anyone who believes that sports can’t be an effective platform for social justice, needed only to watch last night’s game between Los Suns of Phoenix and the San Antonio Spurs. The unprecedented decision by the entire Suns organization - from owner Robert Sarver to star players Amare Stoudamire and Steve Nash - to come out against Arizona’s anti-immigrant Senate Bill 1070, created a sports broadcast like no other in my lifetime. The game on TNT began with sideline reporter Marty Snider outside the arena covering a mushrooming 3,000 person civil rights march, led by Al Sharpton and Phoenix mayor Phil Gordon (both wearing Los Suns Jerseys.) Then the scene switched to the pre-game studio with host Ernie Johnson and former players Kenny “the Jet” Smith, Chris Webber, and Charles Barkley. The viewing audience then got an unexpected and bracing lesson in dissent.
Kenny Smith, like any good point guard, set up the others by saying, “I think it’s great that the team understands, the management understands and now the people of Phoenix are all rallying together at the same time.” Barkley, a long time Arizona resident and a man who once said that he was a Republican until “the Republicans lost their damn minds” chimed in saying, “The only people screwing it up are the politicians. The Governor – the interim governor I might add - J.D. Hayworth and John McCain. They’re the ones screwing this thing up. I really take my hat off to Robert Sarver and the Suns for taking a stand. You know, living in Arizona for a long time, the Hispanic community, they’re like the fabric of the cloth. They’re part of our community and any time you try to do any type of racial profiling or racial discrimination……. President Obama you’ve got to do something because these lightweight politicians in Arizona have no idea what they are doing.”
The typically blunt Barkley speaking in such terms is hardly surprising. But it was Chris Webber who upped the ante, interrupting a visibly uncomfortable Ernie Johnson with, “Public Enemy said it a long time ago. ‘By the Time I Get to Arizona.’ I’m not surprised. They didn’t even want there to be a Martin Luther King day when John McCain was in [office.]. So if you follow history you know that this is part of Arizona politics.” It was a remarkable display and it was difficult to not think of the millions of television viewers around the country, in sports bars, restaurants, and house parties, being confronted with this kind of forthright, plainspoken language.
But perhaps even more important than the support Los Suns received from protestors and broadcasters, was their play on the court. Phoenix trailed by nine at the end of the first quarter and Spurs star power forward Tim Duncan was scoring with ease. The crowd was dead and it wasn’t difficult to envision what would be said in the SportsWorld if Phoenix lost: “The political hoopla was a distraction.” “This is why sports and politics don’t mix.” “They should have been focused on the Spurs and not immigration.” And grinning smugly would have been LA Lakers coach Phil Jackson who chided the Suns yesterday saying, "If I heard it right the American people are really for stronger immigration laws.... I don't think teams should get involved in the political stuff."
In other words, everyone who stands with SB 1070 would be feeling a little more joyful this morning. It would have been an echo of the time Muhammad Ali lost his first fight to Joe Frazier and all the columnists and fans who wanted to see the draft dodging Ali punished, chortled gleefully after he was knocked to the canvas. But just when we were all ready to stick a fork in the brick-laying Suns, something remarkable happened. The slick shooting, fast breaking team started to crash the boards, play ugly, and do all the dirty work that wins games. Doughy, undersized three point shooter Jared Dudley started aggressively snatching offensive rebounds like his soul had been possessed by Barkley himself, energizing the crowd and shocking his team back to life. The result was a 110-102 victory in which the run and gun Suns were held to just eight fast break points. Coach Alvin Gentry said afterward that he had never seen the team play so mentally tough.
Maybe this will be the start of a new trend where teams see the unifying benefits of going out on a political limb and taking a stand. Maybe players across the sports leagues who oppose SB 1070 will be inspired to come together in a common organization and demand Arizona cease the imposition of “Juan Crow” on the Latino population. Maybe the major sports unions, all of whom have voiced opposition to the bill, will release a joint statement saying that they will support any player or team who boycotts the state as long as SB 1070 is on the books. Maybe this is all utterly unrealistic. But it seems a hell of a lot more possible this morning than it did last night. Viva Los Suns.
[Dave Zirin is the author of the forthcoming “Bad Sports: How Owners are Ruining the Games we Love” (Scribner) Receive his column every week by emailing dave@edgeofsports.com. Contact him at edgeofsports@gmail.com.]
ZNet Articles
ZMag Articles
ZCommentaries
ZVideos
Books
A nice gesture but lets not get too excited
By Green, Chris at May 08, 2010 08:21 AM
Most athletes don't want to offend anyone powerful, especially commercial sponsors. They usually don't make any political gestures except to endorse Republican presidential canidates on the ground that they want their taxes reduced. Mr. Zirin has always been on the lookout for signs of political decency in the sports world and I think he may sometimes get too excited when sports figures express rather banal liberal political sentiments.
Opposition to the Arizona law is pretty widespread in the American establishment, so the "Los Suns" gesture was hardly equivalent to the Tommy Smith/John Carlos salute or Toni Smith turning her back on the national anthem. It was a nice gesture by the Suns, don't get me wrong. I wonder how many white Suns fans were offended by the gesture, probably quite a few. However I doubt the gesture will cost the Suns anything financially. I can't imagine that any boycott against the team would ever get even remotely off the ground.
What would get me really excited and perhaps allow me to approach the enthusiasm Mr. Zirin shows in this article is if the Suns would speak out against the economic exploitaiton of illegal immigrants or the trade policies which lead to illegal immigration. Mr. Zirin has written articles in the past fervently praising Steve Nash and Charles Barkley for attacking the Iraq war. In the sports world, where taking a non-Republican political stance is severely frowned upon as a dangerous rocking of the boat, it certainly is impressive to a certain extent. However both Nash and Barkley are Nike athletes. I would be much more impressed if Nash and Barkley spoke out against Nike sweatshops. Speaking out against sweatshops takes alot of more courage than joining liberal America and a good portion of the American establishment in denouncing the Iraq war and the racist Arizona law. If Barkley and Nash took a real stand against exploitation of workers and were willing to sacrifice the vast sums of money they personally accumulate from the sale of Nike's sweatshop products, then they would be fully worthy of inclusion among Toni Smith and other genuinely radical athletes that Zirin has movingly written about.
Reply this comment