John Focke, the radio voice of the Charlotte Hornets, has been suspended indefinitely after sending out a tweet which replaced the word “Nuggets” with the N-word.
The Tweet was quickly deleted, but enough fans noticed that by 10:00 that night, Focke was issuing an apology. The Charlotte Observer added that Focke confirmed it was not an autocorrect error.
“The Charlotte Hornets are aware of the recent social media post by radio broadcaster John Focke. As an organization, we do not condone this type of language. John has been suspended indefinitely as we investigate the matter more closely,” said the Hornets thru Twitter.
Focke joined the Hornets organization at the start of the 2018-2019 season. In addition to calling the team’s games on radio, he also does a weekly podcast on the official website. Prior to working in Charlotte, Focke served as the radio voice of the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx.
My first thought was it couldn’t be deliberate, probably an autocorrect. Then I thought it must be a word he uses a lot, Twitter wouldn’t offer it as an autocorrect unless it was a common word in your history.
But THEN I realized it was only off by two letters, both adjacent to the wrong letter.
I really don’t want to let hate get away with it, but it’s a POSSIBLE mistake. And I don’t want an innocent man ruined either.
Deep breath, and investigate. Has he used that word in other non-public communication?
He said it wasn’t an auto correct error, so he’s just admitting that he typed exactly what he was thinking while watching two black men(Guess Jamal Murray is black) go at it in a basketball game. Human error. I’m sure it would happen more often in sports, but journalists are smart enough to proofread before clicking send or post
“He said it wasn’t an auto correct error, so he’s just admitting that he typed exactly what he was thinking”…
Sorry, “I meant to do it” is not the only alternative to “Not Auto-correct”. It could also just mean “I mistyped and I don’t want to blame the Twitter Auto-Correct for my typo”.
The letters I and U are adjacent on a QWERTY keyboard, so are the letters R and T. I am used to typing on a wide standard keyboard but usually make a lot of mistakes when forced to suddenly switch to the narrow laptop keyboard. It’s may not seem likely, but it’s plausible.
That’s why I’d rather look at his history. This is a career-wrecking. If he has a history of using that word he probably typed it from muscle memory and deserves all the wrath descending on him, but if not let’s be willing to conditionally accept his apology for a horrid mistake and keep a sharp watch for other lapses.
He probably needs to pull a Tom Brady and lose his phone before Michael Jordan request a look at his phone history. I have no complaints with his apology. Accidents happen. Even got a good chuckle out of him calling them Denver this time