Mispronunciation Leads to Clipper Suspensions

An already forgettable game became all the more troublesome for the Clippers with word today that comments made by their announcing team led to suspensions.  

The Clippers were losing handily to the Memphis Grizzlies when Hamed Haddadi was inserted into the game.  It's not unusual for teams to empty their bench near the end of a blow-out victory nor is it odd for announcers to point that fact out.

The Clippers' Ralph Lawler and Mike Smith got into trouble not for disparaging remarks about Haddadi or his native country of Iran.  No, Lawler and Smith were suspended for tonight's game against the Denver Nuggets for failure to pronounce Iran correctly.

Smith pronounced Iranian as "eye-ranian" instead of the correct pronunciation of "e-ranian".  Lawler quickly followed using the same mispronunciation.  A viewer called to complain and suspensions followed.

Fox Sports Prime Ticket, who issued the suspensions, shot an airball on this one.

Much in the same way that a football referee could call holding on every play, or a basketball official could call travelling each time down the court, anyone who speaks for a living is likely to, in some form or another, offend someone sometime.

I heard the remarks that night and frankly I was much more offended by the comment made by Lawler about Haddadi's passing ability that was tinted with a reference to his ethnicity.

I was born in Argentina and doubt I would have taken offense if a behind the back pass by Manu Ginobili was described as "a great no-look pass by the Argentinian gaucho from San Antonio".  Others more sensitive than I however might have taken offence at such a reference.

So when word came out about the suspensions I admit to not being surprised.  My wife in fact cringed when she heard the aforementioned description of Haddai's pass.

But to learn that the reason for the suspensions was a mispronunciation and by what appears to be a single viewer left me baffled.

"But it is a business. If they offended somebody, I'm sure they didn't do it on purpose." said Baron Davis after hearing about the suspensions.  

Yes, of course, basketball is a business but when did it become basketball's job to please everyone all the time?

It's easy to label this a case political correctness gone overboard and maybe it was.

But I think maybe it had more to do with the asinine perception by a media conglomerate that everyone who watches what it produces must shut the TV off with a smile on their face.

No Fox, you can't please everyone all the time.

Was the tete-e-tete between Lawler and Smith edgy?   Certainly.  Was it offensive?  To most I'd say no, to one yes.  Does that merit a suspension?  No, it does not.

A written apology to the viewer with a Fox T-shirt thrown in for good measure should have sufficed.  A private reprimand of the broadcasters should have followed and the matter is closed.

Instead we are forced today to discuss topics like Iran (you say tomato and I say tomahto), political correctness and suspensions instead of the Clippers win over the Nuggets.  

In typical Clipper style the team can't even win without some loss attached to it.

This "loss" however sits squarely on the shoulders of Fox.