ESPN has issued a statement apologizing for the presence of a racial slur that appeared in a headline about Jeremy Lin's performance on Friday night. According to ESPN, the headline -- "Chink in the Armor" -- appeared on ESPN.com attached to a story about Lin's nine turnovers in a New York Knicks loss for about 35 minutes before being removed.
Rob King, ESPN.com editor-in-chief, also tweeted a message about the slip-up.
There's no defense for the indefensible. All we can offer are our apologies, sincere though incalculably inadequate.
ESPN has not yet commented on an anchor's use of the same phrase during a segment on the Knicks' loss on SportsCenter late Wednesday. Update: ESPN has issued an additional apology for the remark:
Wednesday night on ESPNEWS, an anchor used an inappropriate word in asking a question about Jeremy Lin. ESPN apologizes for the incident, and is taking steps to avoid this in the future.
Earlier this week, SBNation.com's Jon Bois wrote about the unfortunate entry of casual racism into coverage and discussion of Lin, the NBA's fourth and by far most prominent Asian-American player. Some of the iffy messaging around Lin has even come from MSG itself.