Okay, as I’ve mentioned before, I am a Dan Patrick fan. Ive been following his career since he and Keith Olbermann made SportsCenter a household name. As such, I’ve tended to side with him when it comes to certain matters, be it sports or otherwise. This…is one of those times.
The New York Knicks have been in the news lately, thanks in large part to the insane play of their point guard Jeremy Lin. Jeremy Lin is a Taiwanese-American basketball player from Palo Alto, California. He went to Harvard and had a pretty good collegiate career. He wasn’t drafted in the NBA, but he got picked up by the Golden State Warriors. They didn’t know what to do with him, so he got released and picked up by Houston. They had far too many point guards on their roster, so they let him go and he got picked up by the Knicks. They were a stone’s throw away from cutting him until an injury to Carmelo Anthony and a tragedy in Amare’ Stoudamire’s life set up a chance for Jeremy Lin to step up and play ball.
And, play ball he did.
The Knicks went from a blubbering mess of a team to winners of – as of this writing – eight of their last nine, and Linsanity has swept the nation. With that comes clever puns on his last name (my favorite is “Super Lintendo Entertainment System”) and celebrity matchmakers (Kim Kardashian has hovered her black hole of fame towards him…with hilarious results). Also, there comes controversy.
A few days ago, ESPN’s Mobile Site put up a headline following the Knicks’ 89-85 loss to the decaying carcass of the New Orleans Hornets that read as follows:
Also, a broadcaster for ESPNews was talking to legendary Knicks point guard and current commentator Walt “Clyde” Frazier about Lin, and he said the same thing. ESPN fired the headline writer and suspended the broadcaster for 30 days. Now, in listening to Dan Patrick, he says that ESPN should’ve had someone to proofread the headline, and probably shouldn’t have suspended the commentator for so long. I can agree with that. I’m not just saying that because I am not a fan of “The W0rldwide Leader,” because that would be hypocritical. To paraphrase Dan, they’re a multibillion dollar organization, and they can’t spring for an editor for their mobile site? In my opinion, both people should’ve been suspended for two weeks without pay. To completely fire one and suspend the other for a month is ridiculous.
Eventually, companies and corporations are going to have to start taking responsibility for their own actions instead of just pruning those who have sullied their image. And, no…one is not mutually exclusive of the other. But, I guess this is why I’m not in charge of a company or a corporation, because I will accept responsibility for the actions of my company and make the steps to ensure that it doesn’t happen again. There is a such a thing as sensitivity training, and maybe ESPN should’ve used it instead of cutting off their noses to spite their face.
Of course, this is just my opinion…I could be wrong.