Is it another case of an NBA owner’s racial insensitivity coming to light in a company e-mail? Or was it his iPhone’s autocorrect?
Either way, Golden State Warriors co-owner Peter Gruber has to address his use of the word “hoodish” in an e-mail to Warriors employees. Gruber claims he meant to type “Yiddish,” but that his phone changed it.
It all started when the Warriors public relations department sent out an e-mail about the vast number of international players in the NBA this season. Gruber said he was joking in his response, obtained by Yahoo! Sports: “I’m taking rosetta stone to learn Hungarian Serbian Australian swahili and hoodish This year. But it’s nice.”
When an employee expressed disenchantment with the word “hoodish,” Gruber quickly apologized: “Someone just brought to my attention that an email I responded to earlier contains the word ‘hoodish,’ which I don’t even think Is a Word, and certainly not the one I intended to use,” Guber wrote in the email. “I intended to type Yiddish. Either my mobile fone [sic] autocorrected or it was typed wrong. In any event I regret if anyone was unintendedly [sic] offended.”
Gruber very well could be telling the truth. But if you type “Yiddish” into your cellphone, “hoodish” does not come up.
This issue comes after Bruce Levenson of the Atlanta Hawks decided to sell his share of the team following a racially insensitive and offensive email in which he said too many Black fans supported the team. This makes Gruber’s gaffe worth noticing. After all, Donald Sterling eventually lost his Los Angeles Clippers franchise over his notorious, racist comments that were recorded in secret.
Likely, an investigation will ensue.
