{"id":1753783,"date":"2022-11-28T06:30:19","date_gmt":"2022-11-28T11:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1753783"},"modified":"2022-11-28T11:48:42","modified_gmt":"2022-11-28T16:48:42","slug":"going-bananas-nba-champion-lamar-odom-says-phoenix-suns-gorilla-mascot-is-racist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/going-bananas-nba-champion-lamar-odom-says-phoenix-suns-gorilla-mascot-is-racist\/","title":{"rendered":"Going Bananas: NBA Champion Lamar Odom Says Phoenix Suns\u2019 Gorilla Mascot Is Racist"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fgoing-bananas-nba-champion-lamar-odom-says-phoenix-suns-gorilla-mascot-is-racist%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1753783&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Lamar-Odom-640x335-1.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p class=\"subheading\">Two time NBA <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LamarOdom\">champion<\/a> Lamar Odom intimated this week he believes the Phoenix Suns\u2019 gorilla mascot is racist, pointing out such animals are not found in the desert.<\/p>\n<p class=\"a8d-pre\">During an appearance on the Bootleg Kev podcast, the host <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=OUtnq0k1SIs\">said<\/a> he was a Suns fan and they have been \u201cdealing with the cheapest owner in basketball\u201d for quite a while.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cWell I feel bad for the Suns fans because they ain\u2019t never gonna get, probably, what y\u2019all deserve probably until you change the mascot,\u201d Odom replied:<\/p>\n[embedded content]\n<p class=\"a8d-pre\">When the host asked if he did not like the gorilla, Odom shook his head and said, \u201cNo, bro.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cDo you think there\u2019s like some racial connotations with the Suns\u2019 gorilla?\u201d the host inquired, to which Odom replied, \u201cCome on, bro. The thing that\u2019s funny is they kinda like slid that one by for all these years. Nobody like says anything about that. Gorillas in the desert\u2026 you can\u2019t find any. You could probably find a cactus.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Lamar Odom says the Phoenix Sun\u2019s mascot is racist. \u201cGorillas, in the desert, you can\u2019t find any. You could probably find a cactus\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/NUSSb0j2iP\">pic.twitter.com\/NUSSb0j2iP<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 No Jumper (@nojumper) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/nojumper\/status\/1596545921600348162?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 26, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>According to SportsKeeda, the Suns did not have a mascot until 1980 when a fan <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportskeeda.com\/basketball\/news-gorillas-desert-find-any-former-nba-champion-suspects-phoenix-suns-gorilla-mascot-depicts-racism-covertly\">showed<\/a> up at the arena wearing a gorilla suit and was invited to entertain the audience.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter some time of putting on the schtick, the Gorilla was named the team\u2019s official mascot,\u201d the website said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"a8d-pre\">In 2021, the \u201cOriginal Gorilla,\u201d Henry Rojas,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=0FGxL_8SIcA\">shared<\/a> his story with 12 News:<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B3\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n[embedded content]\n<p>Rojas told the outlet odd things happened when he was on the court.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would polish the three point line when we needed one shot and they\u2019d hit the shot,\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n[embedded content]\n<p>While speaking of the mascot\u2019s origins recently, Odom claimed,\u00a0\u201cWhat\u2019s really crazy about it is that it was a\u2026 they just tried it because they wanted to get some fans involved and that\u2019s the reason why they kept it because the fans loved it,\u201d he continued, adding he believes it is \u201cnot good representation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two time NBA champion Lamar Odom intimated this week he believes the Phoenix Suns\u2019 gorilla mascot is racist, pointing out such animals are not found in the desert. During an<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1753786,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[547],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1753783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-bongino-report"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1753783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1753783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1753783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1753786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1753783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1753783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1753783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}