Viva Los Suns: Things Get Real Political on TNT

The Suns wore their "Los Suns" uniforms last night, and things got a bit political on TNT's game-day coverage.

After a TNT reporter delivers some news about a protest of the new immigration law going on in Phoenix (site of game two of the Western Conference semifinals), TNT's in-studio broadcast crew starts discussing the immigration law.

Kenny Smith says everybody understands that AZ's law is wrong. Charles Barkley says the "lightweight" state politicians in Arizona are screwing things up, and he calls out John McCain and primary opponent/radio host J.D. Hayworth. Barkley seems to suggest racial profiling is a trend in AZ.

Ernie Johnson, the only white guy on TNT's panel (I mention this because we're talking about racial concerns), tries to bring it down a notch (away from broad categorizations of Arizona and its politics) and says everyone can agree AZ's law speaks to a broader, federal problem; "The crux of this is the wording of that Senate bill, 1070." Indeed.

Chris Weber is having none of the "wording" discussion and delivers the coup de grace: "Public Enemy said it a long time ago, 'By the time I get to Arizona.' I'm not surprised, they didn't even want it to be a Martin Luther King Day," referencing Public Enemy's song about the MLK-Day controversy in AZ in the 1980s.

For more on the convergence of sports and the AZ immigration debate, see this post from yesterday.