Sunday 27 November 2022 03:50 PM Woke former NBA champ Lamar Odom says Phoenix Suns' mascot is racist after ... trends now
Former NBA star Lamar Odom said the Phoenix Suns' gorilla mascot is racist following the team's owner's one-year suspension for using racial and sexual slurs.
Odom, 43, appeared on the Bootleg Kev Podcast hosted by a Suns' fan Bootleg Kev on November 23 to discuss the contentious Arizona mascot that has been appearing on the court since 1980.
The basketball team has been under scrutiny after it was found that owner Robert Sarver had used the N-word on at least five occasions among other transgressions from his nearly two-decade tenure. Sarver has since been suspended for one year and fined $10 million.
Odom, who described himself as a 'woke, young Black Man in America,' admitted that he wasn't pleased with the Suns' gorilla mascot and said that team officials had plenty of options to choose from.
'The thing that’s funny is they kind of slid that one by for all these years,' Odom told Bootleg Kev. 'Nobody says anything about that. Gorillas, in the desert, you can’t find any. You could probably find a cactus.
'In basketball, bro, just like, come on, bro. But you know what’s so, really crazy about it? They just tried it because they wanted to get the fans involved, and that’s the reason why they kept it, 'cause the fans loved it.'
The basketball star, who ended his career with the Los Angeles Clippers in 2013, further noted that Arizona didn't recognize Martin Luther King Day until 1992.
Former NBA star Lamar Odom appeared on the Bootleg Kev Podcast on November 23 and argued that Phoenix Suns' mascot is racist
The Arizona Suns' gorilla has been on the sidelines since the 1980s - but Odom argued that he never saw anything wrong with the mascot until recently. Pictured: The mascot with American Idol Winner Jordan Sparks in 2008
Phoenix Suns owner Robert Sarver (pictured) was suspended by the NBA for one year and fined $10 million following a league investigation into allegations of him using racial slurs, creating an inequitable work environment for women, and engaging in harsh and demeaning treatment of employees
Odom (number seven) retired his NBA career in 2013 with the Los Angles Clippers. The NBA star played started his career on the Clippers in 1999 to 2003 before heading to the Miami Heat for a year and then the Lakers from 2004 to 2011. Pictured: Odom in 2000
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While the Arizona Suns' gorilla was once a beloved mascot, it was recently ranked one of the worst in the NBA.
The contentious gorilla was ranked number 25 out of 27 mascots in the industry in a survey conducted by PlayAZ.com in 2021. Following the Suns' ranking was the Coyote from the San Antonio Spurs and the Dallas Mavericks' Mavs Man.
Bootleg Kev and Odom stated their differences with the contentious gorilla as the podcast host argued
