Napoleon D Conquers the NBA

More on the cultural conquests of Napoleon Dynamite (see "The Charm of Underdogs" below on P and P).

The San Antonio Spurs are probably the best team in the NBA. They eliminated the Denver Nuggets last night in the first round of the NBA playoffs and have won two NBA championships in the past few years.

I saw something during the game that cracked me up.

Even though the Spurs are one of the best basketball teams in the world, they play in San Antonio, a city that suffers from an ongoing urban inferiority complex.

Manu Ginobli plays for the Spurs. He's from Argentina. Lots of people--including myself--think he's one of the best players in the world. He led Argentina to the gold medal in hoops at the last O games.

But he's a Latin hoopster in America and plays in a second-tier city that can't believe it deserves the good fortune of such a great team.

The Spurs' PR department understands all of the above.

In the Napoleon D movie the uber-geeky Napoleon wants to help his unassuming Mexican immigrant friend Pedro become class president of their all white, rural high school. He starts wearing a "Vote for Pedro" t-shirt.

During their final game against the Nuggets, the San Antonio PR suits sent their team mascot out wearing a "Vote for Manu" t-shirt patterned directly after the Napoleon D version. Tons of SA fans wore the same thing in the stands.

In a stroke of marketing genius the citizens of San Antonio and their hoop mascot became Napoleon Dynamite while their all-world immigrant hoopster Manu became the third world immigrant loser Pedro.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. When elites wanna be geeks it's a case of Napoleon uber all.