NBA Announcing Team Suspended for Remarks About Iranian Player

[MadBadger]

Clippers longtime play-by-play announcer Ralph Lawler and color analyst Michael Smith were suspended one game by the Fox Sports Prime Ticket cable network for their comments about Memphis center Hamed Haddadi.

Lawler and Smith made their off-the-cuff comments about the Iranian-born center during Wednesday night's telecast from Memphis. The on-air banter offended a viewer who e-mailed Fox to complain.

Here's a transcript of the exchange

Smith: "Look who's in."

Lawler: "Hamed Haddadi. Where's he from?"

Smith: "He's the first Iranian to play in the NBA." (Smith pronounced Iranian as "Eye-ranian," a pronunciation that offended the viewer who complained.)

Lawler: "There aren't any Iranian players in the NBA," repeating Smith's mispronunciation.

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."

Smith: "Especially the post players.

Lawler: "I don't know about their guards."

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=4676383

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[Arkana]

1. e: fuck, I don't read apparently.

[Schema Thing]

2. oh geez.

[democracy1st]

3. I swear people get dumber by the day

[blue sky at night]

4. your subject line read a little weird to me...

it sounded like the NBA was announcing a team was being suspended....let's face it the guys on the networks can't help but show their true colors when they don't have time to think before they speak. When is it going to become apparent to these clods that this is not a white anglo-saxon protestant country, but a true melting pot...as it should be.

[Aragorn]

5. can't disagree

especially on text only, but this does not strike me as offensive, just talk. It can read like a compliment in fact.

[msongs]

7. the pronounciation of Iran is no big deal. the other comments are stupid at best nt

[stevedeshazer]

6. The Clippers can't do anything right.

It's the most irrelevant franchise in professional sports.

I liked them better when they were the Buffalo Braves.

[Mopar151]

8. It's really dumb when a bunch of rich Iranians live in LA n/t

[ddeclue]

9. What specifically is supposed to be "offensive" in this exchange of dialogue?

I didn't see anything in particular and I've usually got a good ear for this sort of thing.