Clippers Announcers Lawler and Smith Back From Suspension, Deeply Regret Comments

Last week, the Clippers were in garbage time against the Memphis Grizzlies and L.A. announcers Ralph Lawler and Michael Smith tried to have a little fun at the expense of one of the Memphis reserves. Hamed Haddadi, a 7-2 backup center from Ahvaz, Iran caught the attention of the visiting announcers:

There are a few levels of insult in the clip, first the oversight that the announcers pronounced the country "Eye-ran" instead of the more appropriate and widely accepted "Ear-ron," which would have likely gone unnoticed if they didn't continue the exchange by suggesting Haddadi is a relative of Borat and that, if a movie were to be made about Haddadi, Sacha Baron Cohen should play the role.

This is clearly the most offensive part of the conversation, inasmuch as the Borat character was from Kazakhstan and, regardless, the announcers were saying a famous comedian should portray Haddadi simply because he's from the Middle East ... and that has to be funny. Even if, as we know, Kazakhstan is in Eastern Europe Asia and the Borat reference makes absolutely no sense.

Clippers season ticket holder Arya Towfighi didn't think it was so funny, and actually found it quite offensive. He wrote an e-mail to the Clippers, FOX Sports – who telecasted the game – and the Los Angeles Times to express his consternation. Towfighi, vice president and assistant general counsel for Univision Communications Inc. in L.A., said late last week that he was not asking for any punishment of the announcing crew in his e-mail. But punished they were.

Last night, after missing Friday's game, the announce team was back, and led the telecast with an apology.

"I'm Ralph Lawler, along with Mike Smith," Lawler said. "I want to get something out of the way. Both of us deeply regret anything we might have said that may have offended any good Clipper fan or anybody else in that ball game against Memphis last Wednesday night. We're glad to put that behind us and we're glad to be back."

Case closed, right? Not if Los Angeles Times columnist T.J. Simers has anything to say about it. Via SI.com's Arash Markazi's Twitter came a link to Simers' column today with the headline, "Complaints about Pete Carroll and Ralph Lawler are utterly ridiculous." The Carroll reference leads the article, as Simers takes USC fans to task for complaining about the Trojans' season. But Simers teases his second point in his lede, writing, "I'll get to the Fox TV executives, and their inappropriate and idiotic comments regarding Ralph Lawler, as well as the guy who won't let his 8-year-old son hear Mike Smith's lame attempt at humor but has no problem sending the kid to school now that everyone knows his father is a Clippers season-ticket holder."

Typical Simers, turning the story into a punchline about the man who complained. Later in his column, Simers reintroduced the topic by leading with, "AS FOR Lawler, no question there should be outrage -- outrage that he was suspended for a game along with Smith. The Fox TV executives who suspended him are obviously out of touch, and I wouldn't be surprised to learn the folks who made such a decision were not based in L.A."

Yes, it's clearly the FOX TV executives who are out of touch in this case, not the long-time blowhard sports columnist who is writing a column defending two announcers who, themselves, have apologized for making the comments. To be fair, the column does throw Smith under the bus for the Borat comments, and excuses Lawler – who Simers pushes for the Hall of Fame – by assuming he doesn't even know who Borat is and was just going along with Smith's 'attempt at humor.'

And here's another example of a sportswriter like Simers not realizing that the world is bigger than him, and with the internet and 24-hour cable news and information constantly surrounding us, there's a lesson today; just because you don't know something, it's myopic to assume that those reading you don't know it. Especially if you're going to make a joke about it.

Arya Towfighi, born to Iranian parents in Boston, took offense to an on-air exchange between Lawler and Smith and sent an e-mail to The Times, Clippers and Fox. He said he was upset because Smith and Lawler did not pronounce "Iran" properly.

I didn't know there was a proper way to pronounce "Iran," and maybe a broadcaster should, so shame on Lawler and Smith, but why was Towfighi watching the Clippers lose to Memphis? Talk about someone who needs to explain himself.

Look, I don't think anyone (other than FOX execs) thinks the two should have been suspended, but they were, and they apologized and moved on. Simers used his column to defend Lawler, with words like, "one line versus 31 years of extraordinary work," and in doing so, made at least three references to Towfighi, mocking him for watching the end of the Clippers game and again for sending his 8-year old son out of the room to replay the comments with the line, "so upset, I guess, he just wanted to hear it again." Or so upset he wanted to make sure he heard it correctly before firing off an unfounded complaint.

Remind me again, T.J., who in this story is obviously out of touch?

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.