NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has responded to ESPN’s Pat McAfee’s ‘white b***’ remark about Caitlin Clark, saying he refuses to ‘get into cliche cancel culture issue.’
Touching base with reporters ahead of Game 1 of the NBA Finals between the Dallas Mavericks and Boston Celtics on Thursday night, the league’s 62-year-old commissioner commented on McAfee’s choice of words during a strange defense of the Indiana Fever star following her rough treatment by Chennedy Carter on Monday.
‘Look, I’d say Pat McAfee is what you’re referring to, and he apologized, which I accept,’ Silver told a reporter.
‘I think that the way media works these days, with people who are on live for hours, they’re going to make an occasional mistake, and I believe What matters is the context, their goal, and what they are ready to say thereafter.I’ll leave it to ESPN to make the wrong personnel judgments regarding sanctions and such. But I recognize that in a free society, there is a lot of talk and dialogue, and I believe that for the WNBA, it will be a double-edged sword. I don’t want to get into the typical cancel culture debate. But I’m concerned that this sort of notion, that somebody appears to be a person of good intent, is saying things in the context that genuinely look supportive of the player, but says a term that shouldn’t have been
‘I don’t want to overdo it. I believe we can move forward from it.
McAfee was widely chastised on social media for the remark about Clark, who has dominated headlines since Carter bodychecked her during the Fever’s victory over the Chicago Sky, captained by her college rival Angel Reese, on Saturday.
The ESPN reporter stated that other newcomers, such as Angel Reese and Cameron Brink, have raised the WNBA’s prominence, but the league’s popularity surge is entirely due to Clark. He used a bunch of data comparing the three rookies to demonstrate his case, but he also referred to Clark as a ‘white b****’, which seemed totally unnecessary.
After receiving concerns on social media on Monday, McAfee later apologized to X. He wrote, ‘I shouldn’t have used “white b****” to describe Caitlin Clark.
Adam Silver was also asked about the general WNBA discourse happening, and the way Pat McAfee described Caitlin Clark earlier this week pic.twitter.com/NJNw2aGIrX
— Shane Young (@YoungNBA) June 6, 2024
‘No matter what the context is, even if we’re talking about race being a factor in some of the things that are going on, I have just too much respect for her and women to put that out there.
‘My intentions were nice, as was the entire section, but many people claim it wasn’t. I fully accept responsibility for this and apologize. I apologized to Caitlin as well. “Everything else I said was still all facts.”
This week, McAfee was spotted with former NFL J.J Watt, a defensive end, competed at The Soccer Tournament in North Carolina alongside Sergio Aguero, Marco Materazzi, and Guiseppe Rossi.
Leave a Reply