Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley was cursed out by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski in email
The NBA is set to restart its 2019-20 season in a few weeks in Orlando, and players have started to arrive in the Sunshine State.
They’re staying in a bubble environment, but there’s little doubt they heard about something that happened Friday outside of their current environment.
The subject was ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, who is known as the person who breaks all the big stories in the NBA. Fans on Twitter refer to his scoops on “Woj Bombs.”
On Friday, Wojnarowski dropped an F-bomb in response to an email from Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley.
A letter from Hawley’s office said the senator was writing to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver about the league’s decision to allow players to write Black Lives Matter messages on their jerseys.
Hawley is upset the league is doing that while “censoring support for law enforcement officers or the military and any criticism of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). ... (A)s the NBA is now sanctioning political messages, they must stand up for American values and make clear where they stand on China’s human rights abuses.”
A news release apparently was sent to Wojnarowski, who responded with a two-word message.
Hawley tweeted a screenshot of Wojnarowski‘s email (warning: the offending message has not been redacted):
Wojnarowski shared a statement on Twitter apologizing for his email and promising to reach out directly to the Missouri Republican.
“I was disrespectful and I made a regrettable mistake,” he said. “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.”
ESPN issued its own statement shortly thereafter, calling Wojnarowski’s actions inexcusable.
“This is completely unacceptable behavior and we do not condone it. It is inexcusable for anyone working for ESPN to respond in the way Adrian did to Senator Hawley. We are addressing it directly with Adrian and specifics of those conversations will remain internal.”
Hawley tweeted that he had been contacted by “lobbyists” for ESPN and suggested a meeting be held in Washington.
“My phone has been ringing off the hook with lobbyists from @espn, from @Disney, the works. Let’s make this simple. I’m inviting ESPN CEO Jimmy Pitaro to Washington. My office. Let’s sit down and discuss ESPN, #China, the @NBA. Look forward to his response,” Hawley tweeted.
This story was originally published July 10, 2020 at 12:59 PM.
