A woman poses with a newspaper showing a photo of Spain's Olympic basketball team making slant-eyed gestures while posing for an Olympics publicity photo, in Madrid. The photo was originally part of a publicity campaign for team sponsor Seur and is being used solely in Spain. The headline translates as 'return to racism'.
So players on Spain's Olympic basketball teams - men and women - created an uproar with ads that show them making slant-eyed gestures, in an apparent attempt to make them look more Chinese. The team, which includes NBA superstar Pau Gasol, can't seem to understand what the problem is.
"It was something like supposed to be funny or something but never offensive in any way," said Gasol. "I'm sorry if anybody thought or took it the wrong way and thought that it was offensive."
The photo even has people whether the photo is exposing an NBA double standard. Jason Kidd is quoted as saying that if it was the U.S. team, "We would've been already thrown out of the Olympics."
But while some are upset, others are downplaying the incident. Frank Zhang, director of government and public affairs for clothing brand Li Ning's, another sponsor of Spain's team said "We don't think this is an insulting gesture to the Chinese."
"In fact, the gesture shows that the Spanish team is so humorous, relaxing and cute. They sat around a dragon pattern, which we think showed respect to the Chinese."
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