Sunday, March 09, 2008

"Los Suns" Beat "Los Spurs" on NBA's "Noche Latina"

In the latest achievement in language-mangling, "Los Suns" defeated "Los Spurs" 94-87 on the NBA's "Noche Latina," or Latin Night. Noche Latina makes sense, because it is a literal translation. But Los Suns and Los Spurs?

Putting the Spanish word for "the" on the front of the jersey before the team name, while keeping the team name in English, is pretty silly. If the NBA wanted to go with Spanish, why not use the Spanish word for Suns and Spurs? The WNBA once had a team in Miami called the Sol (Spanish for sun), a nod to the city's Latino population. Why couldn't the NBA do the equivalent?

Maybe the NBA was afraid that non-Spanish-speaking fans wouldn't be able to tell which team was which if they had Spanish names. (Hint: Phoenix is the team in orange, with Shaquille O'Neal.)

Would David Stern consider doing an NBA Pig-Latin Night in the future? If so, ix-nay on the hombre!

2 comments:

O Sonhador said...

I´m a brazilian guy and I agree with you man!!

8IT said...

You are mistaken, but understandably so. That is the way - in, albeit slightly colloquial, Spanish - that you would say the name of a team (think "The Beatles"). Language translations are not always direct literal. "Los Spurs" is what they are called around San Antonio.