ESPN Forces Jalen Rose To Make Super Awkward Halftime Apology
Jalen Rose, known for his extremely sane takes like "Mount Rushmore is racist," stepped in it with his Disney bosses while on ESPN Friday night.
Prior to the Chicago Bulls vs. Boston Celtics game, ESPN had their usual pregame show, "NBA Countdown." Mike Greenberg hosted a panel that included Michael Wilbon, Stephen A. Smith and Jalen Rose. Talk about the woke all-star team.
The topic of former Celtics head coach Ime Udoka came up, as the group discussed him as the potential next coach of the Brooklyn Nets. Udoka, you'll recall, was suspended by the Celtics for an alleged affair with a team staffer.
Previously, Stephen A. Smith got into some hot water by demanding that the woman in Udoka's alleged affair be named.
Apparently, Jalen Rose didn't get the memo because he still wants the woman named. I guess that would really change the narrative surrounding Udoka, or something.
"We know name," Rose said. "Maybe I'm missing something, as it relates to the law, but why we don't know her name? It's not like she's a minor. I feel like we should know her name publicly as well."
Rose would go on to say that Udoka "deserves a second chance."
Why this information -- the woman's name -- matters so much to Rose and Smith is unclear. Although, it's interesting how Smith, who always has something to say, was particularly quiet during this segment. His facial expression didn't even change as Rose spoke.
Either way, Disney/ESPN apparently didn't care too much for Rose's comments. Or, people on Twitter didn't and company executives scurried to appease them. More likely the latter.
After the Celtics/Bulls game went to halftime, ESPN went to commercial break and then returned for Jalen Rose to deliver a clearly scripted and taped apology.
"I'm Jalen Rose," he began, for some reason, "and I would like to apologize for a comment I made earlier on NBA Countdown. I questioned why a woman's name -- who had an alleged affair with Celtics head coach Ime Udoka -- was not made public.
"After an internal investigation, and it was discovered that she was a subordinate to the head coach, I now understand why her name should not be released to the public. Now back to our NBA coverage."
Ok, then.
The on-air apology wasn't enough, either. Rose took to Twitter to make sure everyone knows that he's really, really sorry.
There's nothing more ironic than when a woke all-star has to apologize to the woke mob for an unwoke comment made on a woke network. And Jalen Rose, ladies and gentlemen, is a woke all-star. He might even be in the woke Hall of Fame.
Although, comments like this might have him on the outside looking in. He'll have to quickly call something racist to get his candidacy back on track.