Charlotte Hornets’ radio broadcaster was suspended after using the N-word in a Twitter post.
What We Know:
- The Charlotte Hornets suspended their radio broadcaster, John Focke, on Tuesday after he used the N-word in a tweet during Monday night’s NBA game between the Utah Jazz and Denver Nuggets.
- Focke tweeted, “Shot making in this Jazz-(N-word) game is awesome! Murray and Mitchell going back and forth what a game!” The racial slur was in place of where “Nuggets” should have been. Focke was referring to the shooting display of both teams, specifically between Utah’s Donovan Mitchell and Denver’s Jamal Murray.
- The tweet was posted in the afternoon and then deleted by Focke. Later that evening, Focke tweeted an explanation for using the racial slur, claiming it was a typo.
“Earlier today I made a horrific error while attempting to tweet about the Denver-Utah game,” his tweet said. “I don’t know how I mistyped, I had (and have) no intention of ever using that word. I take full responsibility for my actions. I have been sick to my stomach about it ever since. I’m truly sorry that this happened and I apologize to those I offended.”
- Tuesday morning, Charlotte Hornets PR tweeted a statement regarding the incident. “The Charlotte Hornets are aware of the recent social media post by radio broadcaster John Focke,” it said. “As an organization, we do not condone this type of language. John has been suspended indefinitely as we investigate the matter more closely.”
- Although Focke deleted the post immediately, screenshots of the post continued to float around different social media platforms like Instagram where commenters believed it was either intentional or he used the racial slur a lot for auto-correct to replace “nuggets”.
Before Focke was the broadcaster for the Hornets, the Minnesota native was the radio announcer for the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx. He joined the Hornets in April of last year. Charlotte missed the playoffs this season and is not playing in the NBA’s bubble in Orlando, Florida.
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