ESPN’s star basketball reporter suspended for profane email to Missouri senator

On July 10, 2020, with the National Basketball Association (NBA) set to resume play at the end of the month, Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley (R) wrote a letter accusing the league of censorship after it approved a list of certain social justice messages players could wear on the back of their jerseys. Missing from the list were any phrases critical of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) or what Hawley described as its “violent suppression and enslavement,” a reference to police crackdowns on anti-Chinese government protests in Hong Kong and the detainment of Muslims in China’s Xinjiang province. Top NBA reporter Adrian Wojnarowski, who was sent the letter by Hawley’s press office, replied to the senator with an expletive, prompting a two-week suspension from ESPN. 

Key Players

Adrian Wojnarowski is a high-profile sports reporter, columnist, and author who currently covers the NBA for ESPN, having previously done so at Yahoo! Sports. Dubbed “Twitter’s N.B.A. Draft Oracle” by The New Yorker, Wojnarowski is widely known for dropping “Woj bombs,” or correctly predicting NBA picks and trades before they happen, and breaking other basketball news to his 4 million Twitter followers.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) became the youngest serving senator when, at age 38, he defeated two-time Democratic incumbent Sen. Claire McCaskill in the 2018 election, The Atlantic reported. 

On July 3, 2020, ESPN revealed that the National Basketball Association (NBA) was allowing players to choose from a list of 29 approved social justice-related phrases to display above their jersey numbers when play resumed on July 30. Many of these messages express support for the recent anti-racist, anti-police brutality protests sparked by the police killing of George Floyd in late May 2020, such as “Black Lives Matter” and “I Can’t Breathe.” The most popular message was “Equality,” with 76 players choosing it for their jerseys. Of the anticipated 350 eligible players, nearly 300 selected a phrase to put on their jerseys, while the remaining players, including Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James, decided to display their names instead, according to USA Today.

Further Details

On July 10, Hawley’s press office sent a news release to numerous journalists, including Wojnarowski, publicizing a letter the senator had sent to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. The letter criticized the league for not including any jersey messages that support U.S. law enforcement or “victims of the Chinese Communist Party.” 

“Given the NBA’s troubled history of excusing and apologizing for the brutal repression of the Chinese Communist regime, these omissions are striking,” Hawley wrote.

Hawley accused the NBA of letting its commitment to free expression “stop at the edge of your corporate sponsors’ sensibilities,” referring to the NBA’s highly profitable television and business ties to China that date back to the 1980s and generate millions for the league annually, according to Sports Illustrated. 

The NBA’s business relationship with China hit a snag in October 2019, when Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey tweeted in support of pro-democracy Hong Kong protests, which resulted in significant backlash from Chinese fans and politicians, as well as mixed responses from NBA executives and players. In his letter, Hawley denounced the NBA’s decision to apologize to the CCP and Chinese fans on Morey’s behalf. 

Two minutes after receiving this email, Wojnarowski replied to the senator’s press office with an uncensored “F–k you.” Hawley then posted a screenshot of Wojnarowski’s response with the caption, “Don’t criticize #China or express support for law enforcement to @espn. It makes them real mad.” 

Hours later, Wojnarowski tweeted an apology, writing, “I was disrespectful and I made a regrettable mistake. I’m sorry for the way I handled myself and I am reaching out immediately to Sen. Hawley to apologize directly. I also need to apologize to my ESPN colleagues because I know my actions were unacceptable and should not reflect on any of them.”

In a tweeted reply to Wojnarowski’s apology, ESPN released a statement calling the reporter’s behavior “unacceptable” and “inexcusable,” adding that the network does not condone such a response from any ESPN employee. In recent years, the company has sought to portray itself as an “apolitical refuge from divisive issues and a home for sports fans across the political spectrum,” according to The Washington Post, even as conservative critics have accused ESPN of liberal bias. With few sports to cover during the COVID-19 pandemic, ESPN has struggled to maintain its focus on “what happens on the field,” especially as more and more athletes have spoken out against racism following Floyd’s death, The New York Times reported.

Hawley replied to the NBA’s statement by tweeting, “Don’t make @wojespn apologize. He’s just saying what he really thinks. Call out the @NBA. You know, your job.”

Outcome

ESPN suspends Wojnarowski, prompting players to voice support for him

On July 12, 2020, ESPN suspended Wojnarowski for two weeks without pay and postponed his scheduled travel to Orlando to cover the restart of the NBA season, according to The Post. Hawley tweeted in response to this news that instead of suspending the reporter, ESPN should more rigorously cover the NBA’s “pro-#China, anti-America bias.”

Following Wojnarowski’s suspension, LeBron James and at least six other NBA players took to Twitter to express support for the ESPN reporter with the hashtag #FreeWoj, according to NBC News. James tweeted this hashtag with an emoji depiction of white and Black hands fist-bumping, which Hawley retweeted with the caption, “Now try #FreeHongKong.” 

Wojnarowski’s suspension ended on July 24, and he quickly returned to the NBA restart beat, taking to Twitter that same day to break news of a player’s foot injury, Yahoo! Sports reported. 

In a post-suspension interview with the New York Post, Wojnarowski expressed regret for his actions and said he has never sent such an email before, nor has he ever been suspended. He also said he had left voice messages for Hawley at his offices in Missouri and Washington, D.C., but did not hear back.

NBA replies to Hawley’s letter

On July 29, NBA Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum wrote a reply letter to Hawley stating that the league’s goal was to use the season’s restart to “promote racial equality in our country” through jersey messaging. In the letter, Tatum declined to address fully Hawley’s question of whether the league would protect players and employees who spoke out against the CCP’s actions, calling such a scenario “hypothetical” and affirming support for players and team representatives who wish to “speak out on issues of public concern that are important to them.”

Hawley called the letter a “joke,” tweeting, “Maybe it’s time to hear directly from Adam Silver. On Capitol Hill. Under oath.” He also posted the link to a July 29 ESPN article about reported “human rights concerns,” including physical abuse, at NBA training academies in China. A week before, on July 21, NBA executives acknowledged for the first time that the league had terminated its academy in the controversial region of Xinjiang, where more than a million Muslims have been detained by Chinese authorities in what reports have described as “concentration camps.”