Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James isn’t happy with the explanation from Washington Wizards announcer Glenn Consor for his reference to Kevin Porter Jr.’s father of the Houston Rockets on Wednesday night.
“I stand by my tweet. I stand by everything I said,” James said according to Ryan Ward of Lakers Nation. “So, let’s just say, he thought that was the case. We get scouting reports on players, and I know you guys from the media all get memos and stuff for players and stuff before the game, right?”
“So, I was actually watching the game live last night when I heard, and I waited. I didn’t do it right away as you see with my tweet, I was watching the game,” James continued. “So, if that’s the case, if I am a play-by-play announcer, and I’m covering a team – my local team – in his case he’s covering the Wizards. So he remembers the Kevin Porter who used to play for the Bullets, correct?”
“The first thing I would have done, I would have said, ‘Oh, Kevin Porter Jr. is coming into town, let me see if that’s his son.’ I would have did that due diligence way before,” James said. “And I think everyone on this call would have done the same thing.”
LeBron explaining his tweet criticizing the Wizards announcer for comments about Kevin Porter Jr and his dad (only 1:30+ mins worth from his presser, he spoke for much longer on the subject): pic.twitter.com/o0J7lBmEOF
— Ryan Ward (@RyanWardLA) January 6, 2022
Wednesday night, Porter Jr. of the Rockets knocked down a game-winning three-pointer with 0.4 seconds left in the game to beat the Wizards 114-111. While watching the replay of the shot, Wizards broadcaster Glenn Consor made a comment that immediately set social media on fire.
“What a well designed play,” Consor said. “You gotta give credit, Kevin Porter Jr., like his dad, pulled that trigger right at the right time.”
The problem with the reference to Porter Jr.’s father is that Bryan Kevin Porter Sr. spent more than four years in prison for the 1993 shooting death of a 14-years-old girl, and was shot and killed in 2004.
James responded with outrage on Twitter, saying the reference was “insensitive” and that there was “no place in our beautiful game” for the announcer.
Oh he thought this was cool huh!!?? Nah we ain’t going for this! Sorry but this ain’t going to fly! How insensitive can you be to say something like this. Beat it man! I pray for you but there’s no place in our beautiful game for you! https://t.co/UgVOBUOsPK
— LeBron James (@KingJames) January 6, 2022
Immediately following the call, many wondered whether Consor was referring to former NBA player Kevin Porter, mistakenly believing him to be Porter Jr.’s father. Kevin Porter played in the NBA until the 1982-1983 season after being drafted by the Baltimore Bullets in 1972.
Consor confirmed this to be the case on Thursday, apologizing to Kevin Porter Jr. for the mistake.
“Please allow me to take this opportunity to sincerely apologize to Ken Porter Jr., his family and the Rockets organization for the comments I made during last night’s game,” Consor wrote in a statement. “I mistakenly thought Kevin was the son of former Washington player Kevin Porter and was unaware that the words I choose to describe the game-winning shot would be in any way hurtful or insensitive. I have reached out to Kevin to personally apologize and hope to be able to talk with him soon.”
While James did not call for Consor’s job and said the reference “could have been a mistake,” he did say that the words Consor used on the broadcast “should never be used,” and that the announcer should have done his “homework.”
“We’re going to continue to protect our players. And, they said [Consor is] supposedly a very smart guy, right?” James said. “Is that what everybody is saying? The guy is a very smart guy. So if you’re a very smart guy, I believe you should be able to do your homework on situations.”
“So if you’re doing your homework on any one of these kids that’s in this league, that word that he used for that kid to make that game-winning shot, that sentence that he used —no matter if he knew that was his dad or not — should have never been used in the first place. And if you know the history of this kid’s dad, you can’t sit here and tell me that those words … it’s just a direct correlation,” he continued.
The Lakers play the Atlanta Hawks Friday night at 10:00 p.m. ET on ESPN.
Joe Morgan is the Sports Reporter for The Daily Wire. Most recently, Morgan covered the Clippers, Lakers, and the NBA for Sporting News. Send your sports questions to [email protected].