ESPN has suspended NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski for replying to a U.S. senator’s e-mail with an expletive, according to multiple reports this weekend.
According to the Washington Post, Wojnarowski’s suspension will last between one and two weeks and delay his arrival in Florida to cover the NBA’s planned resumption of play at Walt Disney World. Outkick the Coverage was first to report the suspension.
Wojnarowski, who has been with ESPN since 2018, apologized on Friday for cursing out the senator.
ESPN has gone light on suspensions in the Jimmy Pitaro era after doling them out with some regularity during John Skipper’s tenure. The last ESPN suspension of any notable length was Jemele Hill’s two-week ban in 2017, ostensibly for suggesting fans boycott the Dallas Cowboys’ sponsors if they disagreed with owner Jerry Jones’ stance on protesting during the national anthem.
There had been some thought that Dan Le Batard would be suspended after he criticized ESPN’s politics policy on-air last summer, but that did not happen.
The impetus for Wojnarowski’s expletive was a press release sent by the senator’s office accusing the NBA of preventing players from wearing pro-police or anti-China messages on their jerseys. The league plans to let players wear a pre-approved list of statements related to racial equality in place of their last names.
