ESPN has reportedly suspended NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski without pay over an email Woj sent in which he wrote “(expletive) you” in response to a press release from U.S. Senator Josh Hawley.
Wojnarowski has publicly apologized for the email, which was released by Hawley on social media.
Hawley’s press release concerned the backs of NBA jerseys. For the restart of the league, the players’ union and the league agreed on a set of messages that players could wear on the back of their jerseys in lieu of their last names, including “Black Lives Matter,” “Equality,” and others.
Hawley wrote a letter to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, which his office then released publicly, decrying that more right wing messages were not on the list of permitted phrases for the backs of jerseys.
It was the press release announcing that letter to which Woj replied with the f-bomb.
Twitter reacted to news of the suspension by, for the most part, supporting Woj with the #FreeWoj hashtag (and making a lot of jokes that Woj should’ve broken the news of his own suspension):
