AS the NBA unveiled players' jerseys bearing various messages on social justice at the back, PBA star Alex Cabagnot made a sound suggestion.
Made sense, right?
Sure did, because the idea soon turned into a clamor on social media from a number of Facebook fan pages eager to see 'Kapayapaan' or some other Filipino word replacing 'Peace' in the Fil-American guard's No. 00 Utah Jazz jersey.
As in anything viral, the clamor soon took a strange turn, with one fan page claiming Clarkson's dad had said that the Jazz guard was barred by the NBA from wearing a social justice message in Filipino.
To clear the air, we got in touch with Mike Clarkson through our US-based columnist Homer Sayson and JC's dad felt the need to clear the air.
The elder Clarkson explained that JC chose the word 'Peace' from among 29 social justice messages pre-approved by the NBA prior to departing for Orlando, Florida for the league bubble.
"Unfortunately, once his verbiage was selected, the uniform couldn’t be altered again," Clarkson said.
"It’s not a discrimination issue ... other players chose messages in their native languages before arriving in the bubble, respectfully," he said. "Nevertheless, [Clarkson] continues to represent his Filipino roots with pride."
Among the popular social media messages chosen by NBA players in the Disney bubble are: Black Lives Matter; Say Their Names; Vote; I Can't Breathe; Justice; Equality; Freedom; Enough; Power to the People; Justice Now; Say Her Name; How Many More; Group Economics and Education Reform.
Some of these messages were carried in languages other than English by international players in the NBA rosters, including in Slovenian, Italian, French Creole, Latvian, Maori, Hebrew, Bosnian and Portuguese.
Mike Clarkson didn't say if JC made the request or not, but he was glad to get the jersey message right.
"Hopefully, this should clear up all speculation and misconceptions surrounding Jordan’s jersey," he said. "Now, let’s enjoy the playoffs and the talent on display during these unprecedented times."
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