The Thunder suspended TV announcer Brian Davis for responding to a nice play by saying Russell Westbrook was “out of his cotton-picking mind.”
Westbrook, via Fred Katz of The Norman Transcript:
“Brian has been here for a while. What he said wasn’t OK. We all understand that,” Westbrook said. “But he definitely came in and talked to us. The team has made the decision to do what they need to do. We just have to move on from it.”
This seems like the appropriate response.
We can point out what Davis said wasn’t OK and explain why: The phrase is tangled in a history of slaves picking cotton in the South.
We can also note that Davis denied ill-intent for a phrase many (myself included) hadn’t previously considered and apologized for his insensitivity, learn from this and move on.
