There have already been some breathtaking performances across various networks in the 2024 Paris Olympics, but controversy has definitely stolen some of the luster from the athletes’ medals. Some of this has been related to rosters, some has come from various sports broadcasting booths.
It all began before the Games even started with Indiana Fever star rookie Caitlin Clark not being selected for the US Olympic Women’s Basketball team. Clark is a once in a generation player and media sensation. She has single-handedly, and yes, I said single-handedly raised the multimedia profile of women’s college basketball and the WNBA.
Her presence, play, and performance has shined a light on both teammates and opponents. One of the excuses given for her exclusion was that there would be controversy if she did not get ample playing time. Clearly, the Women’s Olympic basketball brain trust is lacking in both brain and trust. Brain in that it does not take a genius to figure out what Clark would have done for the TV ratings of the games, and trust in that they have no faith in Clark’s ability to fit in nicely with the team regardless of playing time. As the Games began, reports surfaced that USA Basketball now regrets not including Clark. Right, especially if they wanted people to watch.
The US Men’s Olympic Basketball team roster has also had its share of controversy, namely, the fact that Celtics’ star Jaylen Brown, MVP of both the Eastern Conference and NBA Finals, was snubbed by the team. USA Basketball Managing Director Grant Hill doubled down on the controversy by adding Brown’s Celtics teammate Derrick White to provide more defense.
What? Anyone who has watched the United States Olympic basketball team compete since the Dream Team of 1992 knows that defense is the least of its worries. They regularly rack up 30- or 40-point victories over their opponents. The omission of Brown from the Olympic roster ignited ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith to reiterate his assertion from unnamed sources that Brown is disliked among his NBA counterparts.
This prompted Brown to respond. During the Celtics’ post-title victory parade, cameras caught Brown wearing a T-shirt that read “State Your Source.” Smith and Brown subsequently engaged in a social media battle. Brown has also admitted that his distaste for Nike, the sponsor of the US Men’s Olympic Basketball team, was another reason he was left off the team.
The perceived anti-Boston feelings were compounded when Head Coach Steve Kerr did not play Jayson Tatum in the US vs. Serbia game. When questioned by reporters about the Tatum benching after the game, Kerr called himself an “idiot” and said that it is hard to get playing time for every player. Well, he got the first part right anyway.
Regardless, the omissions of Clark and Brown are the real stories. It’s interesting that the most compelling female basketball player and the best men’s basketball player throughout the NBA playoffs are both sitting at home watching the Olympics.
Controversy has also hit the Paris Olympics with the comments of Eurosport broadcaster Bob Ballad. Following the Australian Women’s 400 Free gold medal swimming performance, Ballad, while waiting for the team to get to the podium, stated, “Well, the women are just finishing up. You know what women are like…hanging around, doing their makeup.” Ballad’s broadcast partner Lizzie Simmonds rather angrily retorted, “Outrageous, Bob. Some of the men are doing that as well?”
In the aftermath of the exchange, Ballad was fired. This takes me back to 2013 when, during the BCS National Championship game, cameras caught a crowd shot of Alabama quarterback A.J. McCarron’s then-girlfriend, Katherine Webb.
ESPN play by play commentator Brent Musburger stated, “When you’re a quarterback at Alabama, you see that lovely lady there? She does go to Auburn but she also is Miss Alabama and that’s A.J. McCarron’s girlfriend. … You quarterbacks, you get all the good-looking women. What a beautiful woman. Wow.”
Musburger and ESPN apologized amid the post-comment furor while Webb was a good sport and probably saved Musburger’s job saying that he did nothing wrong and she was flattered by the comments.
Another similar controversy erupted during the 2006 ALCS between Oakland and Detroit. FOX analyst Lou Piniella said that the surprising play of Oakland’s Marco Scutaro was akin to finding a wallet.
Subsequently, Piniella used the terms “en fuego” and “frio” in his commentary. His fellow analyst Steve Lyons then stated that Piniella was “hablaing Espanol” and added, “I still can’t find my wallet. I don’t understand him (Piniella) and I don’t want to sit too close to him now.”
FOX received numerous complaints. The remarks were also perceived as controversial because Piniella comes from Spanish descent. Lyons, a three-time Emmy winner and FOX’s number two baseball analyst, was fired while on the plane ride home from the game.
It should be noted that Lyons’ firing may have been an offshoot of two previous treks into controversy. One involved a FOX camera shot of a fan wearing special glasses during a 2006 Mets-Dodgers NLDS broadcast. Play-by-play man Thom Brennaman and Lyons made light of the fan who, as it turns out, was 85% blind.
Another incident involved Dodger Shawn Green’s dilemma of sitting out a game during the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur in 2004. Lyons joked that Green was struggling with the decision, and he never had a Bar Mitzvah, so he couldn’t even take advantage of receiving money as a gift.
In 2020, Thom Brennaman, himself, was relieved of his duties as Cincinnati Reds’ play by play announcer because when coming back from a commercial break, audio caught him saying an anti-gay slur.
These past dismissals and the Ballad firing hit at the heart of viewers’ collective psyches. Some are ticked off that these men were let go or punished for their words. Others feel that their fates were justified. Both sides have a point, but what this is really about is venue and intelligence.
There are appropriate places for ethnic, gender, and sex-related humor – the recent Roast of Tom Brady on Netflix is an example. In that venue, all bets are off and there should be a no holds barred expectation in terms of content. That is not the case in the sports broadcast booth, and this is where the intelligence part of the issue comes into play.
Simply put, Ballad along with Musburger, Lyons, Brennaman and others before him should know better. They are all veteran broadcasters, well aware that comments carrying even the slightest possibility of being viewed as sexist, racist, or offensive in any way are best left unsaid. Ballad’s comments were stated in the ultimate wrong place at the ultimate wrong time.
The Olympic Games Opening Ceremony on NBC set off another much-discussed controversy. In an extremely dramatic, epic, and history-themed program, one of the vignettes featured drag queens and dancers re-enacting the famed Last Supper painting.
The performance and image sparked incredible controversy throughout all forms of media. Defenders of the Christian faith were outraged. Similar to the Ballad firing, this controversy was about venue, but also about taste, which makes it unsolvable. What one person finds offensive another person finds opulent. What one person finds inspiring another person finds insulting.
In any form of media, however, religion is a touchy subject. Social media blew up noting other Last Supper parodies that did not spur controversy, namely, The Simpsons, The Sopranos, and comic book depictions. Religious parody and humor have long been a part of stand-up comedy and other forms of media and entertainment, but should it be used in an Olympics opening ceremony?
Again, we get back to the idea of the venue. The Olympics are an international event, but should never become an international incident. We have seen this with the tragedies of 1972 in Munich and 1996 in Atlanta, as well the 1980 US boycott. Are the Olympics about sports or statements, personal bests or politics? You decide.
ESPN’s Pat McAfee gave his answer to this question by suggesting that more “sports people” need to be involved in the Olympics planning so that such controversies do not detract media attention from the real show and stars, namely, the games and the athletes.
John Molori is a weekly columnist for Barrett Sports Media. He has previously contributed to ESPNW, Patriots Football Weekly, Golf Content Network, Methuen Life Magazine, and wrote a syndicated Media Blitz column in the New England region, which was published by numerous outlets including The Boston Metro, Providence Journal, Lowell Sun, and the Eagle-Tribune. His career also includes fourteen years in television as a News and Sports Reporter, Host, Producer working for Continental Cablevision, MediaOne, and AT&T. He can be reached on Twitter @MoloriMedia.
