Should the Clippers have suspended their announcers for this?

[guava_wrench]

I thought the last part could've been more insulting then anything.  The part about Iranians being able to pass.  But seriously, that is pretty ridiculous.  Somebody has asked me if Brazilians speaks Spanish or Brazilian.  That is not a cause for me to be offended but more sorry that the person doesn't know enough about the world to know that we speak Portuguese.

It seems reasonable to me that players who trained in particular regions might tend to have particular playing styles.

I know there was a lot of political maneuvering that had to be done to allow an Iranian to get into the NBA, so perhaps there is a bit of concern. Seems like overkill to me. There is nothing in what they said that is connected to any stereotypes about Iranians.

I also think we should never ask whether people could find something offensive. The answer is always "yes". The better question is whether the statement is perpetuating a culture that harms certain groups. I don't see that in the comments of the announcers.

The Borat comment perhaps was the worst in my view because it had a "they all look alike" feel to it.

[Amonkey]

I think we just overdo the political correctness in this country.  I work with a Macedonian and Russian kid and the things they say, although innocent at heart, could def be construed as racist and stereotypical.  But that's what they are used to.  They don't mean anything bad by it, especially since didn't have experience with other cultures before moving to the US.  I think we tend to have to watch our mouths and that hampers good debates about different cultures.

[KCattheStripe]

Apparently, the Clippers suspended their television announcers for the following exchange:

The transcript of the conversation between Lawler and Smith, which occurred late in the game, was printed on the Los Angeles Times' Web site:

Smith: "Look who's in."

Lawler: "Hamed Haddadi. Where's he from?"

Smith: "He's the first Iranian to play in the NBA." (Smith pronounced Iranian as "Eye-ranian," a pronunciation that offended the viewer who complained.)

Lawler: "There aren't any Iranian players in the NBA," repeating Smith's mispronunciation.

Smith: "He's the only one."

Lawler: "He's from Iran?"

Smith: "I guess so."

Lawler: "That Iran?"

Smith: "Yes."

Lawler: "The real Iran?"

Smith: "Yes."

Lawler: "Wow. Haddadi that's H-A-D-D-A-D-I."

Smith: "You're sure it's not Borat's older brother?"

Smith: "If they ever make a movie about Haddadi, I'm going to get Sacha Baron Cohen to play the part."

Lawler: "Here's Haddadi. Nice little back-door pass. I guess those Iranians can pass the ball."

Smith: "Especially the post players.

Lawler: "I don't know about their guards."

Link.

Really?  It's considered that offensive to pronounce Iranian as "Eye-ranian"?  The first pronunciation for the word on dictionary.com is "i-rey-nee-uhn". 

I guess the Borat joke could be seen as politically incorrect, but in my view, this is another example of the world becoming maybe a little too politically correct.  It's not as bad as when Lou Pinella was unjustly fired, but it's still stupid.

I'm offended... those jokes were terrible.