INQUIRER Sports

MADRID -- A star member of Spain's Beijing Olympic basketball team, Toronto Raptors guard Jose Calderon, defended Tuesday a controversial advertisement where the entire squad posed while making slit-eyed gestures, saying it was an "affectionate gesture."

"What happened was that during a photo session where the Spanish national team was unveiled, one of our sponsors asked as to pose with a 'wink' to our participation in Beijing and we made an oriental expression with our eyes," he wrote on his Internet site.

"It seemed to us to be something appropriate and that it would always be interpreted as an affectionate gesture. However some European media did not see it as such," he added.

"I want to express that we have great respect for the Orient and its people, some of my best friends in Toronto are of Chinese origin."

In the ad for a Spanish courier company which appeared in sports daily Marca -- which has been widely circulated on the Internet -- the smiling players were standing on center court as they pulled down the skin around their eyes to make them appear slanted. A sketch of a Chinese dragon was drawn across the floor.

Among the members of the team was LA Lakers forward-center Pau Gasol and his brother Marc Gasol, a center with the Memphis Grizzlies.

Britain's Daily Telegraph said: "Spanish sport's poor reputation for insensitivity towards racial issues has been further harmed by the advert."

The Daily Mirror, also of Britain, said the "ad was unlikely to go down well with Olympics hosts China, and could well spoil Spain’s hopes of hosting the Olympic Games in Madrid in 2016 or 2020."

Madrid is one of the four finalist cities to host the 2016 games, facing off against Chicago, Tokyo and Rio De Janiero.

The International Olympic Committee will announce the 2016 host city in October. Spanish sports has been tainted by a series of racist incidents in recent years.

World football governing body FIFA fined the Spanish football federation after fans made monkey chants aimed at England's black football players at a November 2004 friendly international in Madrid.

Last year a handful of Formula One fans targeted British driver Lewis Hamilton during a testing day at Barcelona's Catalunya circuit while four years ago former football national team coach Luis Aragones was caught on tape making a racist remark about French star Thierry Henry.

Earlier Tuesday world champions Spain staged an impressive comeback to beat Olympic hosts China 85-75 in overtime in the men's basketball tournament.