ESPN anchor Randy Scott has been accused of using misogynistic language while narrating a women’s college basketball highlight on “SportsCenter.”
Scott came under fire over the weekend when he voiced a highlight package from the Maryland-Michigan State and was heard saying, “let’s get back to the actual basketball in Ann Arbor,” as the show transitioned to highlights from the Michigan-Michigan State men’s game.
Although it sounded as if Scott was saying that women’s basketball isn’t “actual basketball,” the ESPN anchor defended himself in a since-deleted tweet.
“We did a VO of the moment of silence in Ann Arbor,” Scott tweeted, per Awful Announcing. “Then the WBB highlight. Then said ‘let’s get back to the actual basketball in Ann Arbor.’ Then the MBB highlight. Nice try, though.”
Scott was referring to the moment of silence for those killed in the Michigan State shooting on the school’s campus on Feb. 13, which took the lives of three students and critically injured five more.
ESPN “SportsCenter” anchor, Randy Scott on the show. ESPN/YouTubeScott further explained the situation in a back-and-forth with someone on Twitter, who described his delivery “sexist and disrespectful” to women.
“Respectfully, we did video of the moment of silence in Ann Arbor, then did the Women’s highlight, then as a transition to the men’s highlight, I said ‘let’s get to the actual basketball in Ann Arbor’… Because we’d just 30 seconds earlier done the moment of silence,” Scott tweeted.
“You had the moment of silence in Ann Arbor, went to recap the women’s game, and then said ‘let’s get back to actual basketball’ to transition into the men’s game,” the person wrote back, adding, “Nice try though.”
Randy Scott on the set of ESPN’s “SportsCenter” with actor Jeremy Renner in August 2017. Instagram/Randy Scott Scott replied, “’Actual basketball in Ann Arbor,’ you’re leaving out an important detail.”
His critic, though, wouldn’t budge.
“After rewatching it, there’s a long pause in between,” the person wrote. “You can understand the confusion. It’s ‘actual basketball….. they’re in Ann Arbor.’ It wasn’t a fluid sentence.”
Scott eventually apologized that he wasn’t more direct in his commentary.
“I’m not arguing your feelings,” he tweeted. “I hear you and I understand you. I’d feel the same way if I heard it the way you did.”
