Players on Spain’s Olympic basketball team defended a photo in an ad showing the players using their fingers to apparently make their eyes look more Chinese.
The photo, which has been running as a newspaper spread in Spain since Friday, shows all 15 players making the gesture on a basketball court adorned with a Chinese dragon. The photo was part of a publicity campaign for team sponsor Seur and is being used only in Spain.
“It was… supposed to be funny or something but never offensive in any way,” said Spain centre Pau Gasol, who also plays for the Los Angeles Lakers. “I’m sorry if anybody thought or took it the wrong way and thought that it was offensive.”
Point guard Jose Calderon said the team was responding to a request from the photographer.
“We felt it was something appropriate, and that it would be interpreted as an affectionate gesture,” Calderon, who plays for the Toronto Raptors, wrote on his ElMundo.es blog. “Without a doubt, some… press didn’t see it that way.”
International media criticized the photo. London’s Daily Telegraph said Spain’s “poor reputation for insensitivity toward racial issues has been further harmed” by the photo.
“We’re surprised by the remarks of racism,” said Juan Antonio Villanueva, the communications director for Madrid’s 2016 Olympic bid. “Spain is not a racist country—quite the opposite.”
Four member’s of Argentina’s women’s Olympic soccer team were shown making similar faces in a photograph published last week.
The Spanish basketball federation and Seur declined to comment Wednesday.
“The players explained what happened,” Villanueva said. “We think that’s enough.”
