The men’s Olympic basketball team from Spain is apologizing after a photo was published last week in Spain where the members of the team are using their fingers to squint their eyes for a promotional photo.  Several of the players have said it was done at the request at the photographer and not meant in a racist way or to be offensive to the Chinese.

“This was clearly inappropriate, but we understand the Spanish team intended no offense and has apologized,” Emmanuelle Moreau, a spokeswoman for the International Olympic Committee, said in an e-mail. “The matter rests there as far as the IOC is concerned.”

The OCA, an organization representing Asian-Pacific Americans, also found the photo disturbing. “It is unfortunate that this type of imagery would rear its head at a time that is supposed to be about world unity,” George Wu, the group’s deputy director, said in a statement.

The Spanish women’s basketball team also posed for a photo doing the same thing, and four members of Argentina’s women’s Olympic soccer team were shown making similar faces in a photograph published last week.

The Spanish men’s team features NBA players Pau Gasol, Jose Calderon and Marc Gasol.