<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>When Jason Kidd logged into a laptop to see the Spaniards with his own eyes on Wednesday morning, the photo appeared just as described to him: Here were National Basketball Association players giggling like schoolgirls as they posed with fingers pressed against their temples in a squinty-eyed pre-Olympic salute to China. Before long, Kidd considered the consequences had those giddy European faces been substituted with those of Team USA. “We would’ve been already thrown out of the Olympics,” he told Yahoo! Sports. “At least, we wouldn’t have been able to come back to the U.S. …There would be suspensions.” And for his European peers, well, Kidd suggested, “They won’t do anything to them. It’s a double standard.” For Spain, there are several NBA players, including the Lakers’ Pau Gasol and Toronto’s Jose Calderon, in this unnerving team photo. They wore Spanish uniforms and had the federation’s seal on the floor. It ran as a full-page advertisement in a Madrid newspaper, an advertisement for a national team sponsor. This wasn’t an impromptu shot, but a carefully calculated choice. “It was supposed to be a picture that inspired the Olympic spirit,” Gasol said. And how’d that work out, Pau? Just imagine what would’ve happened had that explanation come out of the mouth of Carmelo Anthony? Here’s what: Stern would’ve been on the next plane to China to work the damage control. The Spaniards made a deplorable circumstance worse with dense justifications and a sense that they had done nothing wrong and nothing offensive. When they were hemming and hawing, digging a deeper ditch, Kidd talked at Team USA’s practice. He was curious how the Spanish players were spinning this. “They have some explaining to do,” he said. “They’ll come up with something good.” Gasol and Calderon aren’t just accountable to Spain on this Olympic stage but the global corporate entity that pays them more than $130 million in pro contracts. The NBA could’ve delivered a ready rebuke on Wednesday and there was none. They’ll dock you $50,000 for ripping an incompetent official, but you can get a pass on an orchestrated racial slur? Gasol is kidding himself to say that he was pushed into it. Do you think Kobe Bryant would’ve been pressured to pose this way? LeBron James? Gasol is a serious, sensitive player with the prestige and clout for Spain to step up and say: Forget it, fellas. This isn’t happening. Only he didn’t.</div> http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/b...o&type=lgns I agree with Kidd. If Team USA did the same thing, I expect more hate and controversy than the Spanish team created. "It was supposed to be a picture that inspired the Olympic spirit" Yeah right Pau
Kidd's talking like the players planned and took the photo themselves. It was the National team in conjunction with the Spanish press that organized this whole thing. Talking about the how it would've played out in America is pointless, because there's no way USA Basketball or any mainstream newspapers would dare propose such an idea. If anything, it just shows the differing attitudes towards political correctness in Spain and the US.
I don't know if he wants people to take it literally. It seems to me that he's basically saying that would be the only lasting memory of the U.S. team had they been the ones squinting their eyes.
Jason Kidd should stay off the subject, the Spanish team is already getting enough heat from all the PC police out there.
I actually haven't heard that much about it... I think Americans, or Jason Kidd, are more furious about this whole thing than the Chinese
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Brian @ Aug 14 2008, 12:17 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>I actually haven't heard that much about it... I think Americans, or Jason Kidd, are more furious about this whole thing than the Chinese </div> Heh you should have seen PTI today, it was ridiculous. They asked Stern for suspensions.
The US team would have been slammed by the media over and over and over for it. The US team won't pull something like it, because they know they won't get away with it.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Chutney @ Aug 14 2008, 12:46 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Kidd's talking like the players planned and took the photo themselves. It was the National team in conjunction with the Spanish press that organized this whole thing. Talking about the how it would've played out in America is pointless, because there's no way USA Basketball or any mainstream newspapers would dare propose such an idea. If anything, it just shows the differing attitudes towards political correctness in Spain and the US.</div> Kidd is just saying it as a "what if" situation. It's true really. Even if the sponsors insisted and if the players went through with it, the media of the U.S and other countries would have been outraged.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (L @ Aug 14 2008, 12:29 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Chutney @ Aug 14 2008, 12:46 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Kidd's talking like the players planned and took the photo themselves. It was the National team in conjunction with the Spanish press that organized this whole thing. Talking about the how it would've played out in America is pointless, because there's no way USA Basketball or any mainstream newspapers would dare propose such an idea. If anything, it just shows the differing attitudes towards political correctness in Spain and the US.</div> Kidd is just saying it as a "what if" situation. It's true really. Even if the sponsors insisted and if the players went through with it, the media of the U.S and other countries would have been outraged. </div> I'm sure this is the case, but Kidd is throwing fuel onto the fire for no reason.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (huevonkiller @ Aug 14 2008, 01:18 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Brian @ Aug 14 2008, 12:17 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>I actually haven't heard that much about it... I think Americans, or Jason Kidd, are more furious about this whole thing than the Chinese </div> Heh you should have seen PTI today, it was ridiculous. They asked Stern for suspensions. </div> i dont take anything Wilbon says seriously
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (BasX @ Aug 14 2008, 12:42 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (huevonkiller @ Aug 14 2008, 01:18 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Brian @ Aug 14 2008, 12:17 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>I actually haven't heard that much about it... I think Americans, or Jason Kidd, are more furious about this whole thing than the Chinese </div> Heh you should have seen PTI today, it was ridiculous. They asked Stern for suspensions. </div> i dont take anything Wilbon says seriously </div> Oh lol I know, it just amuses me to watch him. :]
