Those Lakers, always the marketing machine.
The Suns last month made a public stand against the Arizona immigration law that has pretty much everyone up in arms one way or another. Following up their public statements of protest, the Suns wore their “Los Suns” jerseys against the Spurs for Game 3 of their playoff series. There were multiple reports that the Spurs had planned on joining the Suns by wearing their “Los Spurs” jerseys, but could not get the jerseys transported to Phoenix in time.
So with the Los Angeles City Council announcing a boycott for the city with Arizona in protest, and considering the very large percentage of Los Angeles residents who are Mexican or Latino, it’s probably reasonable to wonder if they will be making a similar stand for those in their fanbase who feel it’s unfair.
Guess again.
Time Magazine reports that the Lakers will not be involved in any political discussion, with a spokesman saying, simply, “We’re in the business of playing basketball and we’re not in the business of getting into a political debate one way or another. “
I believe the phrase he was looking for was “Americans who wont’ get pulled over for looking suspiciously immigrant buy Laker tickets too.” That’s what Jordan would have said.
Not only will the Lakers make no public statement on the issue, none of their players are electing to comment, either, one way or another.
And that’s fine. Just as it’s well within a sports organization’s rights to elect to be involved on behalf of members of their fanbase, it’s well within their rights to sit out of the discussion. No one is looking to the Lakers for leadership on political issues. And it’s not like those that make up the Staples crowd are going to be directly affected by any such legislation in California, Arizona while visiting, or elsewhere. The odds of a white, high priced movie producer who can afford Lakers lower-bowl tickets getting pulled over in Arizona are unlikely, right? Not like Jack Nicholson’s got a lot of worries about getting asked for his papers under this new law. And I’m sure those Mexicans and Latinos that can afford tickets to LA’s playoff games have their papers in order and on them at all times, or wouldn’t prompt the “reasonable suspicion” the law calls for in order to be stopped if they were to visit Arizona.
It should be noted that the Lakers are highly active in their community, and both Kobe Bryant and Derek Fisher have spoken out publicly in the past in regards to the genocide being committed in Darfur. And to be fair, it’s not like California is enacting these controversial policies. It’s the Suns’ problem, and even then a great many Arizona residents support the bill, as I’m sure many Californians do and would like to see the same in the Golden State.
It’s the safe move for the Lakers. And those that say that sports entities and personalities have no business in getting involved in politics make a strong argument. Just because something’s easy doesn’t mean that it’s wrong. So if you’re a fan of teams not getting involved in political messes, even if a large portion of their fanbase happen to be affected by that mess, you should give the Lakers a hand today. They stood up for not standing up and knowing their place in society.
And hey, “Laguneros” is really long and doesn’t look as cool.
