Fox Sports has suspended Los Angeles Clippers announcers Ralph Lawler and Mike Smith for one game. What did they do to merit the unscheduled vacation? We’re not quite sure.
Whatever it was, only one viewer complained about it. But that was apparently enough to scare the bejeezus out of Fox.
Here’s the damning conversation that supposedly merited the suspension:
Smith: “Look who’s in.”
Lawler: “Hamed Haddadi. Where’s he from?”
Smith: “He’s the first Iranian to play in the NBA.”
Lawler: “There aren’t any Iranian players in the NBA.”
Smith: “He’s the only one.”
Lawler: “He’s from Iran?”
Smith: “I guess so.”
Lawler: “That Iran?”
Smith: “Yes.”
Lawler: “The real Iran?”
Smith: “Yes.”
Lawler: “Wow. Haddadi – that’s H-A-D-D-A-D-I.”
Smith: “You’re sure it’s not Borat’s older brother?”
Smith: “If they ever make a movie about Haddadi, I’m going to get Sacha Baron Cohen to play the part.”
Lawler: “Here’s Haddadi. Nice little back-door pass. I guess those Iranians can pass the ball.”
Clipper season ticket holder Arya Towfighi was watching the game with his young son when the conversation between Lawler and Smith occurred.
Towfighi was so offended that he escorted the lad out of the room before replaying the comments. “I didn’t want my son to hear that,” he said. After watching the replay, the outraged Iranian emailed complaints to Clippers and Fox Sports executives. For good measure, he shot one off to the Los Angeles Times, too.
Cyrus Hadavi, a spokesman for the Alliance of Iranian Americans in L.A., was equally horrified. He was left “kind of speechless. In this day and age, why would someone say something like this? Were they trying to offend a whole nation?”
For the life of us, we can’t figure out what was so offensive about the sportscasters commentary.
Here’s our bottom line: Lawler has been the Clippers announcer for 31 years. Anyone who’s been forced to watch this pathetic team for that long should be given dispensation to say just about any damn thing he wants.
Even if it’s offensive to two or three people.
Source: The Big Feed
