Dan Le Batard Suspended By ESPN Over Jonathan Isaac Injury?
ESPN personality Dan Le Batard made a controversial joke on Monday about an injury sustained by Orlando Magic forward Jonathan Isaac.
Isaac went down with roughly nine minutes remaining in Sunday’s showdown against the Sacramento Kings. In an effort to get between two defenders, the 22-year-old did a little jump step maneuver – but it did not go as planned.
He ultimately fell to the floor in pain, clutching his left knee. Announcers feared the worst immediately, and their concerns proved to be true. Isaac ultimately suffered an ACL tear in his left knee.
On Monday, Le Batard’s radio show Twitter account published a poll question asking if it was funny that Isaac got hurt, mostly because he was also one of the few NBA players not to kneel for the National Anthem prior to outings.
“Is it funny that the guy who refused to kneel immediately blew out is knee?” the tweet asked.
Needless to say, that question was met with a ton of backlash – prompting the account the account to delete the message and issue an apology.
We apologize for this poll question. I said on the front and back end of the on-air conversation that I didn’t think it was funny. Regardless of the context, we missed the mark. We took the tweet down when we realized our mistake in how we posed the question to the audience. -Dan pic.twitter.com/iL5HtFm6gs
— Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz (@LeBatardShow) August 3, 2020
“We apologize for this poll question,” a follow-up tweet read.
“I said on the front and back end of the on-air conversation that I didn’t think it was funny. Regardless of the context, we missed the mark. We took the tweet down when we realized our mistake in how we posed the question to the audience.”
The big question now becomes: will ESPN do anything to penalize Le Batard?
It goes without saying that if a similar tweet had been sent out about Colin Kaepernick or someone who opted to kneel for the National Anthem, there would be hell to pay.
If the Worldwide Leader in Sports does not remain consistent with its punishments, it faces a loss of credibility.
A final decision on whether or not to penalize Le Batard should come within the next 24 hours.
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A graduate from the University of Texas, Anthony Amador has been credentialed to cover the Houston Texans, Dallas Cowboys, San Antonio Spurs, Dallas Mavericks and high school games all over the Lone Star State. Currently, his primary beats are the NBA, MLB, NFL and UFC.
This is way I rarely watch ESPN I use to have it on all the time but if want political views I will turn one of the many news stations I want sports news so I looked else where for it you want me and thousands of others back bring back sports not your far left sportscaster personal political views