Los Setting Suns: The Pathetic Irony of the Pandering Suns

I just finished reading New York Times famed sports columnist Harvey Araton’s book on the NBA, Crashing the Borders , when a strange coincidence occurred. It’s when the eminent legal theorist, and Phoenix Suns point guard, Steve Nash, opined on the ramifications of Arizona’s recently passed immigration law.

The new law, Nash explained to ESPN, would be, “A bad precedent to set for our young people, and represents our state poorly in the eyes of the nation and the world," and would, “really damage our civil liberties.”

I’m not sure whose civil liberties Nash is worried about, but I expect they are not the rights of Robert Krentz.

In 1999, Krentz and his wife told PBS' Religion & Ethics Newsweekly , that his ranch had been broken into and burglarized of $700 worth of items. Despite the crime, Krentz said he helped any illegal immigrant he could, “and you know, if they come in and ask for water, I'll still give them water.” 

It’s a pity then, that Nash or the Suns organization said not a word about Krentz’s civil rights when he was shot in the head on his ranch by an illegal immigrant who was scuttling through Krentz’s property one afternoon.

The 58-year-old Krentz had been a rancher on his families’ land all his life, and left several grandchildren and his wife Susan to bury him.

However, the violence visited upon Arizona by its southern neighbor isn't limited to ranchers (Krentz’s dog was also shot). Acapulco saw at least 13 murdered in March of this year— including four decapitations. The total death toll over the last three years is nearing 20,000.

The truth that Nash and the Suns refuse to acknowledge, is that a nation may pay little notice, or no longer remember such men as Krentz, but no nation can let loose its borders to those who mean to do it harm.

If we do not know who is crossing, how on Earth can we shield and protect ourselves? At the very least, common sense dictates that we have some control, so that we can sluice out the felons, pedophiles, and drug-dealers among those that cross our border illegally.

While I am not an immigration attorney, I am an attorney, and I can say that Arizona’s new law largely mirrors existing federal law.

In other words, asking about one's immigration status is already allowed and carried out in this country. The Arizona law, contrary to common belief, does not say that anyone can be stopped in order to question their immigration status. 

What is allowed now, is that after a normal legal stop—for example, a car weaving in traffic— police can ask whether that person is an illegal immigrant. It seems perfectly reasonable, right? Most of us had thought that checking on a criminal suspect’s legal status was already being conducted during a routine traffic stop background check, but not so. The only difference is that the new Arizona law allows the state to conduct a detailed check and enforce the federal law.

I mentioned Araton’s fine memoir at the beginning of this piece in order to include his notion that the NBA has for decades exploited young, black men for its own profit without regard to their leaving high school, and actively encouraging them to abandon the benefits of a college education when the NBA draft offered the twin Sirens of money and fame.

But now, when the NBA sees an opportunity to garner a larger Hispanic audience, the heretofore unknown impulse of Civil Rights Champion crosses the bridge to the Selma of higher ratings, and, finally to the spectacle of Los Suns.

Instead of considering their primary fan-base, the Suns beat a hasty retreat to the political palisades, and made themselves dorm-room heroes, squawking about a civil rights faux-populism, whose self-indulgence is second only to its hypocrisy.

If the Suns were really concerned with rights instead of posturing, they might offer cheaper tickets to Hispanic school groups, or give up one of those prized arena suites to Hispanic-owned businesses, maybe do a little more player development in Central or Latin American countries.

But then again, political preening is easy advertising for a league that wants to be all things to all people, and in the end doesn’t involve anything more than changing the stitching on a few jerseys. 

And in only a few days, the fans will remember how good and how nice and how empathetic the Suns were— even if they don’t remember the life of Robert Krentz.