On-Air Comments About Grizzlies’ Hamed Haddadi Merit Suspension
November 24th, 2009 by A. Enslen Butler Leave a reply »The Los Angeles Clippers' television broadcast team was suspended for one game because of on-air comments made about Memphis Grizzlies' center Hamed Haddadi.
Longtime Clippers announcer Ralph Lawler and broadcast analyst Michael Smith were pulled from the Clippers' game last Friday against Denver. Because the Clippers' feed was not seen in Memphis, the comments about the Iranian-born player did not get a lot of attention and became a footnote in a 106-91 Grizzlies win last week.
The team got into trouble because of one Clippers fan sent an email saying that the Lawler pronounced Iran as "Eye-ran," the Los Angeles Times reported. The fan only wanted to highlight the issue and was not demanding punishment. But FOX responded with an apology and suspended the broadcast team. In other on-air comments, the team also asked if Haddadi was "Borat's older brother" and "If they ever make a movie about Haddadi, I'm going to get Sacha Baron Cohen to play the part." Everyone mispronounces words, including me. I hate that I do it. I thought that the the "Eye-ran" error was not worthy of a suspension, only because we would not have cable news anchors be ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NBA
Article written by A. Enslen Butler
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