The Charlotte Hornets have announced the suspension of radio play-by-play announcer John Focke after he sent a tweet with a racial slur. Focke was watching the first game of the series between the Utah Jazz and the Denver Nuggets. After one of the worst sequences we’ve seen in the bubble, both teams were showing their shooting skills, which led Focke to tweet about it, sending a tweet that included the N-word.
“Shot making in this Jazz-(slur) game is awesome! Murray and Mitchell going back and forth what a game!” the tweet read.
Hornets Announcer Suspended For Tweeting N-Word, Says He Was Trying to Type 'Nuggets' pic.twitter.com/ZkOKOxfSSQ
— D. Linc (@reddawg77089) August 18, 2020
Seeing the context of the tweet, it might look like it was the autocorrect doing a bad job. However, you have to write that word a lot to even appear in your suggestions. Imagine how many times you have to write it that it becomes the first choice when you try to write something similar. Focke deleted the tweet and apologized not long after.
“Earlier today I made a horrific error while attempting to tweet about the Denver-Utah game,” Focke’s tweet read. “I don’t know how I mistyped, I had (and have) no intention of ever using that word. I take full responsibility for my actions. I have been sick to my stomach about it ever since. I’m truly sorry that this happened and I apologize to those I offended.”
https://twitter.com/JWFOCKE/status/1295538617323003904
He apologized and tried to make everything look like a terrible mistake, but the Hornets decided to suspend Locke, who finished his first year as the team’s radio broadcaster.
Charlotte Hornets Statement: pic.twitter.com/4RaDvcSfHU
— Charlotte Hornets PR (@HornetsPR) August 18, 2020
We’ve seen some of these episodes recently and Locke has signed his name on the list. Some fans believe he had to type that word before for his phone to automatically change it. Perhaps it was a mistake but it’s pretty suspicious.
