Alex Rodriguez is setting the record straight on his tan that has grabbed people’s attention.
Social media users were abuzz Friday night when Rodriguez was sitting courtside at the Timberwolves’ 112-107 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks in Minneapolis alongside his fitness instructor girlfriend, Jaclyn Cordeiro, and ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith.
People were wondering what caused Rodriguez’s darker-than-usual complexion, and the 48-year-old responded on Instagram Saturday night, telling his 4.2 million followers that he fell asleep in the sun.
“All right everybody, I know that I’m dark, but I am Dominican, and I went on vacation and I fell asleep in the sun. So everybody calm down,” Rodriguez said in a video which he captioned, “Everybody calm down, it’s just a tan,” with an emoji of the Dominican Republic flag.
Users on X expressed surprise at Rodriguez’s tan Friday night.
“Whats happening with a-rod’s tan???” The Ringer writer Wosny Lambre asked, later responding to the former Yankees star’s explanation with, “Dog, A-Rod is not from this planet.”
One user who goes by Brody B. said Rodriguez “got that Ross Geller special tan,” referring to the “Friends” episode when David Schwimmer’s character gets an excessive spray tan.
Another X user, Josh Cobb, called Rodriguez’s tan “the reverse Sammy Sosa,” referring to the former Cubs slugger whose skin has lightened drastically since he last played in 2007 due to a cream that includes bleach.
Rodriguez, who also attended the Timberwolves’ 101-86 win over the Nets on Saturday, and Marc Lore are taking over as majority owners of the Timberwolves this year, exercising their right to purchase another 40 percent of the Wolves and the WNBA’s Lynx to own 80 percent of the two clubs, ESPN reported in December.
Rodriguez told Us Weekly in September that he lost 32 pounds thanks to Cordeiro’s fitness program.
