ESPN reportedly suspended NBA insider and reporter Adrian Wojnarowski after he sent an email to Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley reading, “F— you.”
The Republican senator asked NBA Commissioner Adam Silver last week if he would allow players to wear jerseys with the message: “Free Hong Kong.” Hawley was criticizing the league after officials announced “pre-approved phrases” would be allowed on the back of jerseys while “censoring support” for law enforcement and criticism of China, according to Fox News.
Wojnarowski responded to Hawley with the two-word email, which Hawley shared on social media. The columnist soon issued an apology for the message.
“I was disrespectful and I made a regrettable mistake,” Wojnarowski wrote in a message he shared on Twitter. “I’m sorry for the way I handled myself and I am reaching out immediately to Senator 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.”
The New York Post reported Sunday that ESPN suspended Wojnarowski without pay. Outkick also reported that he was suspended.
“This is completely unacceptable behavior and we do not condone it. It is inexcusable for anyone working for ESPN to respond the way Adrian did to Senator Hawley. We are addressing it directly with Adrian and specifics of those conversations will remain internal,” the network said last week.
ESPN has not issued a statement on the reported suspension and declined to comment when the Washington Examiner sent a press inquiry.
Hawley responded to the reported suspension on Twitter Sunday.
“@espn don’t suspend a reporter, ask tough questions of @NBA about their pro-#China, anti-America bias. Start reporting for goodness sake,” the Missouri senator said.
.@espn don’t suspend a reporter, ask tough questions of @NBA about their pro-#China, anti-America bias. Start reporting for goodness sake https://t.co/No0rG4mS1L
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) July 12, 2020
Hawley has been critical of the NBA after it declined to support Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey for speaking favorably of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong last fall.
“On July 3, the NBA came to an agreement with the NBA players union allowing players to wear certain social and political messages on their jerseys, almost all aligned with the message of recent anti-police protests,” Hawley wrote in his letter to Silver. “Conspicuously missing from the list of approved phrases are any in support of the victims of the Chinese Communist Party, including the people of Hong Kong, whose remaining freedoms are being extinguished by the CCP’s newly-enacted national security law.”
