Alex Rodriguez's latest courtside appearance is making some social media users do a double take.
On Friday, Rodriguez, 48, and girlfriend Jaclyn Cordeiro, 45, sat at the Target Center in Minneapolis to watch the Milwaukee Bucks play against the Minnesota Timberwolves. The former baseball player and businessman is no stranger to courtside appearances, but it's his appearance that is causing all the buzz.
A Rod, who is Dominican, showed up to Friday’s game looking significantly tanner than usual. The former Yankees star’s new look was noticed by social media users and people who caught the game at home. Check out some of the reactions below.
Rodriguez’s tan is drawing some “reverse” comparisons to retired MLB player, Sammy Sosa. The baseball superstar, who is also Dominican, has been infamously criticized for his alleged skin bleaching throughout the years.
“It’s a bleaching cream that I apply before going to bed and whitens my skin tone,” Sosa told Univision’s Primer Impacto in 2009, per ESPN. “It’s a cream that I have, that I use to soften [my skin], but has bleached me some. I’m not a racist, I live my life happily.”
A Rod’s tan is likely the result of some sunbathing, based on a photo uploaded last week of him vacationing with his girlfriend Cordeiro in Mexico.
Sitting to Rodriguez’s right at the Timberwolves game was none other than Stephen A. Smith. Despite some early career criticism from the sportscaster towards Timberwolves center Karl Anthony-Towns, Smith appeared to fist bump KAT before the game to indicate there’s no ill will between them, per Essentially Sports.
Rodriguez and his business partner Marc Lore became majority owners of the Timberwolves late last year.
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