They're Playing Basketball! (not making political statements)

LA Will Boycott Arizona. Will the Lakers Follow?
By Sean Gregory/TIME.com

After the Los Angeles City Council passed legislation banning the city from doing any further business with the state of Arizona because of its new law targeting illegal immigration, some Los Angelinos are hoping that the Los Angeles Lakers will get behind the cause. In a bit of serendipitous timing, the Lakers are about to face an Arizona team, the Phoenix Suns, in the NBA Western Conference Finals, starting Monday. Obviously, it would be absurd to expect the Lakers to boycott their series with the Suns. But as the representatives of an area with the largest Hispanic population in the country, could the Lakers take some kind of stance, symbolic or otherwise, against a law that the NBA Players Association has already called "disturbing?" Especially after the government of the city it represents has passed a bold measure? "The Lakers are critical to continuing the momentum," says Los Angeles City Council member Jose Huizar, who moved to the U.S. from Mexico when he was four years old.

Further, several members of the Suns themselves, including star point guard Steve Nash (a Canadian), team general manager Steve Kerr and owner Robert Sarver, have spoken out against the measure, setting an impressive standard for modern-day political expression in sports. For their May 5 playoff game against the San Antonio Spurs, the script on the Suns' jerseys read "Los Suns." The move was both a nod to Cinco de Mayo and a gesture against the immigration measure. Los Suns won the game, 110-102.

Your ball, L.A. The Lakers have three foreigners on their team, including star forward-center Pau Gasol, a Spaniard. The NBA has nearly 60 basketball immigrants. "Kobe Bryant and the Lakers are like America's team," says Detroit Pistons forward Charlie Villanueva, who calls the Arizona law, labeled as racial profiling by it passionate opponents, "ludicrous." Villanueva, the son of Dominican immigrants, speaks fluent Spanish. "If they were to change the jerseys or wear headbands, or do a PSA, it would hit home with a lot of households," he says. Los Angeles City Council member Ed Reyes, one of the co-authors of the Arizona boycott legislation, is also holding out high hopes for the Lakers. "It would be huge," says Reyes. "Let's be frank, most people might only give a small percentage of their day to think of a political thing. Sports are like a pastime, it's something in the head. It would send a strong message."

Reyes' city council colleague Richard Alarcon is even more direct. "I love the Lakers, and hope they repeat [as NBA champions]," says Alarcon. "But there are some things more important than basketball. Democracy is more important than basketball. And the Lakers should make a statement."

Don't count on it. TIME asked the Lakers if the team had any plans to take a position on the controversial law, and the response seemed pretty clear: you'd have a better chance of seeing John McCain jumping center for the team. "We're in the business of playing basketball," says Lakers spokesman John Black, "and we're not in the business of getting into a political debate one way or another." Black refused to make any players or executives available to discuss the issue; messages to representatives of several Lakers, including Kobe Bryant, Derek Fisher, (president of the NBA Players Association), and Jordan Farmar, an LA native who also attended UCLA, were not returned. After the Suns spoke out about the law in early May, Los Angeles coach Phil Jackson, who actively supported pal Bill Bradley's presidential campaign in 2000, said: "I don't think teams should get involved in the political stuff."

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1989448,00.html#ixzz0oDKJGnBO

I guess I missed the part where sports teams and players are under any obligation to speak out politically. I don't criticize athletes for doing so if they so choose but asking them too when they have no opinion or no desire isn't fair. Plus this is an Arizona issue. The Suns made a statement because its their state. The Lakers shouldn't have to do so. I don't remember anyone asking the Spurs to make such a statement and San Antonio has a larger Hispanic influence than L.A. So don't expect Kobe Bryant to become Jim Brown overnite. He's just gotten America to accept him again. And as the sainted Michael Jordan once said "Republicans buy sneakers too."