The Bulls will don special "Los Bulls" uniforms Thursday against the Miami Heat to honor the team's Hispanic fan base on "Latin Night" at the United Center.The Bulls join eight other teams -- the Lakers, Heat, Suns, Spurs, Mavericks, Rockets and Knicks -- in holding such an event.
As part of Latin Night, player introductions will be presented in Spanish and traditional Latin dance and music performances will be featured during timeouts and halftime.
"Spanish-speaking people in Chicago make up a significant percentage of the Chicago population," said Steve Schanwald, the Bulls' executive vice president for business operations. "Accordingly, it makes good business sense to reach out and extend our hand to that community.
Latin Night is presented by the McDonald's Hispanic Owner-Operations Association.
Schanwald also said there was discussion of changing the name to "Los Toros" for the night, but that the league wanted to stick with "Los Bulls."
Tickets for the game are still available at Bulls.com.
Below are the jerseys of the other teams participating in Noche Latina:
"Spanish-speaking people in Chicago make up a significant percentage of the Chicago population," said Steve Schanwald, the Bulls' executive vice president for business operations. "Accordingly, it makes good business sense to reach out and extend our hand to that community.
Latin Night is presented by the McDonald's Hispanic Owner-Operations Association.
Schanwald also said there was discussion of changing the name to "Los Toros" for the night, but that the league wanted to stick with "Los Bulls."
Tickets for the game are still available at Bulls.com.
Below are the jerseys of the other teams participating in Noche Latina:
As a first generation Latino-American, born and raised in Chicago, I'm very glad to see the NBA present a Latin Night to several NBA cities. While there is a good percentage of Latino players in the NBA, there has always been a strong following and loyal fan base when it comes to the NBA from Latinos around the world. From Mark Aguirre to Manu Ginobli, there are many Latinos who have made strong contributions and will soon leave legacies to these storied NBA franchises.
that's half-you-know-what...if they mean it, why not 'Los Toros'?
because Bulls is a proper noun
This is marketing and nothing else. I wonder how much the NBA really cares about Hispanic communities in Chicago. It's window dressing. Although, I love when they wear the green so maybe I'm a hypocrite. It looks dumb regardless of who wears it. Is this how rich owners feel better about themselves?
fo sho, we taking over the world.
As someone who earns a living in Spanish language media I find it to be a travesty when proper team names are translated such as "los Cachorros" or "las Medias Blancas". Proper names are proper names and should stay that way.
No one translates Real Madrid to "Royal Madrid" when talking soccer in English, so the same rule should apply.
Good for the NBA by not allowing "Los Toros", it would have been Bull Spit!
Were can I get that jersey?
Kevin Replies: Here ya go: http://www.sportsauthority.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3432095&cid=shopping
I would lean toward "Los Toros", but I understand why it's not that. My bigger beef is they don't normally have "The Bulls" on their jerseys, so why bother with "Los Bulls". Just plain silly.
Hi, there. I got here from a link in the Uni Watch Blog (http://uniwatchblog.com) entry from March 27. (I hope that it is allowable for someone from New York to post here!)
Contrary to the assertion of Anonymous at 3:40, I say that there is nothing wrong or even unusual with translating a team name. In my experience, Spanish speakers and Spanish-language media do indeed call the Cubs "los Cachorros"; similarly, the Cardinals are "los Cardenales", the Angels are "los Serafines", etc.
Likewise, going in the other direction, many Latin American baseball teams are referred to in the English-language media by English-language versions of their names: Mexico City Reds = Diablos Rojos del México; Mexico City Tigers = Tigres del México; Santurce Crabbers = Cangrejeros de Santurce; Cibao Eagles = Aguilas Cibaeñas; Licey Tigers = Tigres del Licey.
In Major League Baseball, the Brewers have over the past few years worn "Cerveceros" jerseys and the Giants have worn "Gigantes" jerseys. These teams got it exactly right; and "Toros" it should have been in this case.
And those baseball teams' jerseys also demonstrate that the article is not necessary. Most appropriate of all would have been "Toros" by itself (the regular jerseys don't say "The Bulls"). But, in any case, "Los Toros" would have been preferable to "Los Bulls". And the same goes for "(El) Calor", "(Los) Soles", "(Los) Espolones", "(Los) Lagueros", and "(Los) Cohetes".
(But "Maverick" is a true proper noun -- it comes from the name of a real person, so "Maverick" or "Mav" cannot in any sense be translated. However, it would have been nice to give it a plural consistent with Spanish rules: "Los Maves".)
I love this! It almost brought tears to my eyes.
For all the cynics going on about the sincerity of the NBA; it really doesn't matter. NBA is at least smart enough to know their market, you're more likely to see the popular sports on Telemundo than 'Network' TV (who clearly don't) these days (wait till World Cup) Great move, no matter what the motivation.