Menu
Download the app

SBJ subscribers – Enhance your experience with the revamped iOS app

Media

Thunder Announcer's Comments "Offensive & Inappropriate"

It is yet to be determined if Davis will address his comments on a future broadcastOKLAHOMAN

Thunder VP/Broadcasting & Corporate Communications Dan Mahoney said that the team believes play-by-play announcer Brian Davis' racially insensitive remarks on Wednesday were "offensive and inappropriate," according to Fred Katz of the NORMAN TRANSCRIPT. Davis during the regular-season finale "referred to Russell Westbrook as 'out of his cotton pickin' mind.'" Mahoney said, "Brian assures me that it was not meant in any derogatory way, and he apologizes. But again, we feel strongly that it's inappropriate and offensive." It is yet to be determined if Davis will "address his comments on a future broadcast" (NORMAN TRANSCRIPT, 4/13). The phrase "loosely means 'crazy,'" and has its origins in "describing workers who harvested cotton crops in the South." It is often "perceived as derogatory, with racial overtones," and Davis' use of the phrase "set off a firestorm on social media" (ESPN.com, 4/12). ESPN's Will Cain said that the comment probably "was not intended with any malicious or racist intent," but that "doesn't mean it's right." Cain: "It's also used by people from every side of the racial spectrum. ...It is not something that people have uttered for quite some time meant to evoke racist intentions. ... He didn't say anything with racist or malicious intent" ("The Will Cain Show," ESPN Radio, 4/12).

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

Shareable URL copied to clipboard!

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/2018/04/13/Media/Thunder-Announcer.aspx

Sorry, something went wrong with the copy but here is the link for you.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/2018/04/13/Media/Thunder-Announcer.aspx

CLOSE