Is The NBA’s Noche Latina “Latino Enough?”

The NBA will be celebrating Noche Latina with seven nationally televised games. The events will take place in Los Angeles, Miami, Orlando, Phoenix, San Antonio, Chicago and New York.

NBA Vice President of Hispanic Marketing Saskia Sorrosa stated, “The Noche Latina program is the perfect example of the ongoing commitment by the NBA to celebrate diversity as part of the fabric of our game. This month-long celebration will bring the excitement of the NBA to Hispanic fans in ways that are culturally relevant.”

The way the night works is that the team name on the jersey is put into “Spanish” and they also have many Latino themed events before the games.  For example, instead of it saying Lakers on the jersey it says Los Lakers. While the effort to honor Latinos is a good thing, the NBA’s effort is not accurate.

Gregory Tejeda stated on his blog, “There isn’t going to be anything substantially different when the Orlando Magic takes on the Oklahoma City Thunder – even if the Orlando team is wearing jerseys portraying them as ‘El Magic,‘ which, in Spanish, makes no sense. It would be La Magia.”

Tejada also stated, “NBA officials in announcing the effort to appeal to Latino fans admit that the nicknames they’re using are not real Spanish. They say they are the names used by their announcers on Spanish broadcast, as developed following market research.”

The NBA is doing something no other professional sports league is doing. The league is showing effort to recognize and connect with Latino fans. The NBA reports that 16 percent of all NBA fans are Latino.

You can find a schedule of the Noche Latina here.

Do you like what the NBA is doing?

[Screenshot By NBA]

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