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(Bob)Ryan, a Boston Globe columnist and a regular on ESPN's The Sports Reporters, drew attention when he tried to be funny on the Tony Kornheiser Show on ESPN Radio on Thursday by saying Vanderbilt had "too many white guys" to beat Western Michigan. The Commodores, who start three black players, defeated Western Michigan on Friday and rallied to stun North Carolina State on Sunday.
"I was making an obvious joke," Ryan said Sunday before covering the Boston College-Georgia Tech game in Milwaukee. "I am truly sorry if anyone took offense. It's been endemic in basketball for decades that white players are trying to make it in what has been perceived as a black man's game."
Ryan had little room for the benefit of the doubt. He was suspended for a month last year by The Globe after telling a Boston TV station that someone should "smack" Joumana Kidd, wife of the New Jersey Nets' Jason Kidd, as Ryan felt she used her son, T.J., as a prop to get on camera.
Asked why he made the Vanderbilt remark given the Kidd incident, Ryan said, "I was so secure in the belief that what I was saying was 100% harmless in the context of the basketball culture that I would have said the same thing on (National Public Radio) as on the Tony Kornheiser Show."
Said Globe sports editor Don Skwar: "I think Bob was attempting humor there, and sometimes humor can be misinterpreted. If there was any misinterpretation, we apologize."
ESPN vice president Mike Soltys said: "It was inappropriate. We've talked to Bob about his comments."
ESPN will not discipline Ryan, and The Globe's Skwar said, "He's at the (Boston College) game today."
"I was making an obvious joke," Ryan said Sunday before covering the Boston College-Georgia Tech game in Milwaukee. "I am truly sorry if anyone took offense. It's been endemic in basketball for decades that white players are trying to make it in what has been perceived as a black man's game."
Ryan had little room for the benefit of the doubt. He was suspended for a month last year by The Globe after telling a Boston TV station that someone should "smack" Joumana Kidd, wife of the New Jersey Nets' Jason Kidd, as Ryan felt she used her son, T.J., as a prop to get on camera.
Asked why he made the Vanderbilt remark given the Kidd incident, Ryan said, "I was so secure in the belief that what I was saying was 100% harmless in the context of the basketball culture that I would have said the same thing on (National Public Radio) as on the Tony Kornheiser Show."
Said Globe sports editor Don Skwar: "I think Bob was attempting humor there, and sometimes humor can be misinterpreted. If there was any misinterpretation, we apologize."
ESPN vice president Mike Soltys said: "It was inappropriate. We've talked to Bob about his comments."
ESPN will not discipline Ryan, and The Globe's Skwar said, "He's at the (Boston College) game today."
No discipline from ESPN?
The irony is just too, too thick.
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