Lamar Odom thinks the Suns should change the mascot because of the negative racial connotation between gorillas and African Americans in the USA.
With NFL's Washington team's name being changed from Redskins to Commanders and MLB's Cleveland Indians to Guardians, former NBA player Lamar Odom sees one more change that should be made.
Lamar Odom
| Position: | PF |
| Age: | 43 |
| Height: | 208 cm |
| Weight: | 104 kg |
| Birth place: | New York, United States of America |
Odom recently went on The Bootleg Kev Podcast where he expressed his view about the Phoenix Suns mascot gorilla being racist.
"They probably have to change the mascot," Odom said. "The thing that's funny is that they slid that by for all these years and nobody said anything about it."
"Gorillas in the desert? You can't find any. You can probably find a cactus. In basketball? Come on," he continued. "You know what's crazy about it? They just tried it because they wanted to get the fans involved. That's the reason why they kept it because the fans loved it."
Phoenix Suns adopted a gorilla as their mascot in the 1980s after a fan's performance in a gorilla suit was well-received by the fans.
Odom later noted that the state of Arizona where the Suns play was the last to recognize Martin Luther King's day as a holiday in the US (it was approved in 1992, nine years after it was made a federal holiday).
"As a woke black man in America in this climate, I'm surprised Chris Paul hasn't said anything by the way," Odom concluded.
Full segment w/ Lamar Odom:
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