What the said didn't warrant a suspension IMO. They called Hedadi 'Borat' and 'those Iranians" Hey Stern, get the sand out of your vadge. So sensitive!
they are only getting a light punishment because he is from iran. if they started in on najera they would have been fired.
I love the fact that the mispronunciation of "Iranian" was identified as one of the sources of offense. Some people...
I read this and was sort of irked. I don't understand why EXACTLY they were suspended. Was it the mispronunciation of "Iran"? Is it pronounced "ee-RAHN"? Maybe they should have called it "Jomhuri-ye Eslami-ye Iran" just to be safe? Or was it that he looked like Borat? Why is that offensive? It's all pretty ridiculous. This isn't Calvin Murphy calling Moochie Norris a "camel jockey" or Howard Cosell calling a player a "little monkey"... both of those terms are racially charged. I'm not sure that Sasha Baron Cohen (a British Jew) acting like a reporter from a former Soviet republic is quite as offensive to Persians. Or Azeris. Or Afghanis. Whatever Haddadi may be. Ed O.
"Good Little monkey" was a common term back in the 50's and 60's that was used to describe a scrappy, hustling baseball player, regardless of race. I have a book about Roger Maris written back then and the author uses the term over and over when praising Maris's energy and effort in the field.
Total overreaction. Lawler hasn't missed one game in 25 years I read today. THe LA Times article was shittily written as well, so biased. The dude kind of looks like Borat...who gives a shit.
If he said I looked like Borat, I'd sue his ass! Seriously though, I of course didn't hear the tone or the context, but it sure looks like a major overreaction. Maybe if they'd just bought the guy some flowers and some chocolat they could have worked it out?
I believe you, and I don't think that Cosell intended anything racist by it (I've read that he referred to his grandchildren as "little monkeys" all the time as a term of affection)... but the year the comment was made on the air was 1983. That's two or three decades after the 50's and 60's. "Little monkey" was and is a term that is racially charged because of centuries of history, whether bad intent is there from the speaker or not. Comparing someone to Borat doesn't seem to be in the same universe. Ed O.
It might be a little bit of an overreaction by whoever suspended him, but I don't doubt that it might've offended some people of Iranian descent in the country. Not sure it warrants the reaction it got though. I'm not Iranian and nor am I a 1st generation American who has a great tie to my cultural past (I, like I would assume many of you, have many different backgrounds I claim as part of my "mix"), so I have a hard time seeing any real issues with someone making fun of someone for being of my personal background. Make fun of Chinese, Japanese (dirty knees, look at these!) Korean, African-American and Philippines all you want, it won't bother me in the least. Of course, that's because I'm not Chinese, Japanese, Korean or Filipino.
Alone the comments were pretty mild, although certainly they didn't show a whole lot of good judgement, but I do find it funny that a certain racist undertone seems to hang over that organization (Sterling discriminating against potential non-white renters, etc.)
Umm, I hate Stern just as much as the next fan but it clearly said in that article that Fox suspended them, not the NBA.
