LeBron James is keeping the pressure on to have Washington Wizards announcer Glenn Consor fired over Monday night’s gaffe when he unknowingly made a shooting analogy involving Rockets player Kevin Porter Jr’s father, who once shot and killed a girl in 1993.
James let his feelings known about Consor’s unfortunate color commentary after the announcer made to comment on Porter’s winning basket in the final moments of the Rockets-Wizards game on Monday.
“You’ve got to give credit,” Consor said. “Kevin Porter Jr., like his dad, pulled that trigger right at the right time.”
The comment, though, struck a sour chord because Kevin Porter’s father served time for shooting and killing a 14-year-old girl in 1993. The elder Porter was later shot and killed himself in a 2004 bar fight.
To make matters worse, Consor got the wrong Kevin Porter. The Wizards’ Kevin Porter Jr’s felon father was not an NBA player. There was a Kevin Porter who played for Washington, but he is not the current player’s father.
James tweeted about Consor’s comment on Thursday, calling Consor “insensitive” and saying there is “no place in our beautiful game” for him.
Of course, Consor quickly apologized for the misfired color commentary:
But as Friday dawned, it seems the apology is not enough for James.
“I stand by my tweet. I stand by everything I said. So, let’s just say, he thought that was the case. We get scouting reports on players, and I know you guys from the media all get memos and stuff for players and stuff before the game, right?” the NBA star said, via Lakers Daily.
“Y’all get like packets of stuff when y’all come to the game and what’s going on and game play,” James continued. “And I believe that – I’m not a play-by-play person, analyst – but I believe that they do they due diligence as well when they get their reports on teams that they’re about to play as well as their own team, right?
“So, I was actually watching the game live last night when I heard, and I waited. I didn’t do it right away as you see with my tweet, I was watching the game. So, if that’s the case, if I am a play-by-play announcer, right, and I’m covering a team – my local team – in his case he’s covering the Wizards. So he remembers the Kevin Porter who used to play for the [Washington] Bullets, correct?” He said.
“The first thing I would have done, I would have said, ‘Kevin Porter Jr. is coming into town, let me see if that’s his son.’ I would’ve did that due diligence way before, and I think everyone on this call would have did the same thing,” James added.
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