¡Viva los Suns!

Some time ago, we had some discussions about athletes and politics (and the disturbing trend of many professional athletes espousing fairly conservative political views, as well as the exceptions). For the most part, athletes tend to avoid politics, and the owners of large multi-million dollar sports franchises even more (at least publicly).

All of that makes this even more outstanding.

Yes, the Phoenix Suns are donning jerseys that say "Los Suns" for the second game of their Round 2 matchup with the San Antonio Spurs (on Cinco de Mayo) in an effort to publicly rebuke the asshattery of the new Arizona Immigration law (perhaps the Arizona Einwanderungsgesetz would be more appropriate...) The NBA Player's union has even issued a statement against the law; presumably a kind of amicus gesture on behalf of the many foreign-born NBA players.

This small gesture is something the NBA needs-- long thought of as a league of basketball divas long on flash and short on class, I very much welcome this kind of act. That it was instigated by team owner Robert Sarver and voted on unanimously by the players just makes it that much better. It's also a really, really smart business move-- states like Arizona have rapidly growing Latino communities, and the old conservative retired white people that moved from Missouri to die in the desert will, well, you know, die in the desert. It's nice (and too rare) when ethics and good business practice converge.

I live in Southern California and am getting tired of the cycle of Lakers euphoria / Lakers angst / Lakers euphoria... I'm pulling for Nash and company to fly their way into the finals. ¡Estoy con los Suns!