Viva Los Suns! Arizona NBA Team Takes a Stand on Immigration (Video)

The Phoenix Suns celebrated Cinco de Mayo in two notable ways last night: They defeated the powerhouse San Antonio Spurs in what one commentator called “the biggest game for this franchise since Robert Horry splattered Steve Nash across the scorer’s table;” and they donned jerseys they don’t usually wear. Jerseys that say “Los Suns.”

The Suns’ owner, Robert Sarver, announced Wednesday that his team would wear the alternate jerseys. “Our players and organization felt that wearing our ‘Los Suns’ jerseys on Cinco de Mayo was a way for our team and our organization to honor our Latino community and the diversity of our league, the State of Arizona, and our nation,” he said in a statement. “We are proud that 400 players from 36 countries compete in the NBA, and the league and the Suns have always considered that to be a great strength of the NBA.”

Sarver went on to criticize the federal government for what he called a “failure to deal with the issue of illegal immigration.”

“However intended, the result of passing this law is that our basic principles of equal rights and protection under the law are being called into question.”

On game day, Suns point guard Steve Nash echoed Sarver’s points. The law, he said, “obviously can target opportunities for racial profiling — things we don’t want to see and don’t need to see in 2010.” Nash, who was born in Canada but lives in Arizona, added that he wanted his home state to be held in the “highest esteem.”

“I think we have a lot of great attributes and a lot of great people and I think we need to be very cautious in how we respect our civil liberties and the tone we’re setting and the precedents we’re setting moving forward.”

Watch it: