During the March 19 game at the Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Texas, a fan was caught sending a racist message via text. The San Antonio Spurs would celebrate a victory over the Phoenix Suns that night, but no one was cheering for an unidentified woman's racist stereotype.
TikTok user ebony (@inluvwganineee) posted a video from Thursday’s game showing a woman responding to a message from a person named Chris.
Ebony captioned their TikTok:
"'How can they afford it' is craaaazy. Someone come get your [grandma for real]"
A text overlay on the video reads:
"If your [grandma] was at the game tonight, ew"
The message from Chris read:
"A lot of crazy Hispanic fans."
The woman's response was:
"All Hispanic! How can they afford it."
You can see the video here:
The video quickly went viral across social media.
The Spurs released a statement on Friday saying:
"All of us in the Spurs organization are proud to live in San Antonio, a city that shines and thrives because of the culture and contributions of our Latino community. Inclusion is a foundation for the San Antonio Spurs."
"We strive to provide an environment, in our facilities and across our community, that celebrates belonging and respect regardless of race or ethnicity. Por Vida."
The final phrase, Por Vida, is the Spanish phrase "for life." It’s the official slogan for the organization, their official hashtag on social media, and is used on Spurs promotions everywhere.
Spurs star point guard De’Aaron Fox also commented on the video in a post game press conference on Saturday, during which he said the incredulous reaction to seeing Hispanics at any event in San Antonio was ridiculous.
Fox said:
"My high school was 60 percent Hispanic. I’m from Texas. Like, what do you expect?"
"It’s like going to Boston and complaining that there’s a bunch of White people. What kind of sense is that? That makes zero sense."
You can see his comments here:
Of San Antonio’s 1.5 million residents, 64.6 percent are Hispanic or Latino, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Of the four major Texas cities with more than 1 million residents, San Antonio is the one geographically closest to Mexico and people routinely commute between San Antonio and Mexico for work.
After sharing his wife Recee and his children's Mexican ties, Fox added:
"So for someone to complain about that, especially being in San Antonio, I don’t know why that would make any sense. But [diversity] should be normalized."
"You’re going to see people that don’t look the same as you, that probably have a different accent as you. So, at this point, you would think it would be normal. But to each their own."
After the video went viral, Spurs fans mobilized to respond with pride on Saturday wearing custom t-shirts and carrying signs saying "Crazy Hispanic Fan" as well as bringing Mexican and Puerto Rican flags to the game.
The comments on the original TikTok video pulled no punches.
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Many shared the view from their better seats.
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And one person decided to share a little internet elote (Mexican street corn) with the crowd in the comments.
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Speaking to the New York Times publication The Athletic, president of Spurs fan organization The Jackals, Aidan Sterling said:
"The whole city came through with camaraderie to come support what the Spurs fan base is, and that is, first and foremost, familia."
"You talk about the culture of San Antonio, that culture is family first and, believe it or not, that culture is, for the most part, Hispanic."
Spurs fan AJ Reygadas told The Athletic:
"One thing I could say for most Mexicans, we don’t take that stuff for personal. We’ll make fun of it. We’ll make the best of it. We’re not going to take it personally, and regardless of whatever she is."
"She could be White. She could be a Hispanic grandma for all we know. We don’t know. And so I’m glad that no one got her face, because, at the end of the day, that’s someone’s mom, that’s someone’s grandma. She made a mistake and I’m sure that she’s going to regret that even though it didn’t show her face. We’re all San Antonio people, man."
Reygadas added:
“Do I condone it? No. But at the same time, I’m not going to go and say, ‘Oh, she should lose her job. Oh, she should be condemned.’ We’re San Antonio people, dude. We embrace anybody."
"You can say what you need to say, and at the end of the day, we’ll still embrace you and give you a hug."
Por Vida, indeed.
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