US sports pundit apologises for mocking Nigerian basketball players names
Smith made a mockery of the names of members of the D’Tigers squad, which caught the ire of not only social media users, but the African continent as a whole.
CAPE TOWN, July 15 (ANA) – A US sports pundit has apologised for mocking Nigerian basketball players names, following the African side’s historic win over the United States in a friendly at the weekend.
According to media reports, Stephen A Smith, who is a pundit for American multinational basic cable sports channel ESPN, had said the US’s “bona fide stars” had “no excuse to lose to Nigeria… some dude named Gabe Nnamdi who goes by Gabe Vincent, Caleb Ogada, uh… Namu – or however the hell you pronounce his name”, as cited by BBC news.
Smith made a mockery of the names of members of the D’Tigers squad, which caught the ire of not only social media users, but the African continent as a whole.
The pundit also came under fire for saying on the same show that Japanese-born baseball star Shohei Ohtani could not be the face of the sport as he used an interpreter.
During his apology on Tuesday, the 53-year-old said he was trying to be funny.
As quoted by Pulse Nigeria, Smith said in his apology, “The Nigerian team that beat Team USA, when I didn’t pronounce the players’ name, they took offence to that and I’m a guy who is a huge fan of Francis Ngannou, Israel Adesanya and Kamaru Usman,” Smith said.
“And to listen to them over the years highlight, what they had to endure to achieve what they had achieved throughout the world, certainly, I want to make sure that I apologise to them
“I apologise to the Asian community and the Asian-American community, I apologise Nigerian basketball team too.”
According to Nigerian online news publication, Pulse, the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) and a handful of D’Tigers players had words for Smith after he shared the clip of his comment on Twitter.
– African News Agency (ANA); Editing by Naomi Mackay