ESPN broadcaster Randy Scott is on defense after being accused of saying that women’s college basketball is not “actual basketball.”
Scott became a target on Sunday when he was relating several women’s college basketball scores, but he said, “let’s get back to the actual basketball in Ann Arbor” as he segued back to the men’s game.
Critics lashed out, claiming that Scott said women’s basketball is not real. But the broadcaster struck back, explaining in a since-deleted tweet that he was only talking about the game he was broadcasting as the “actual basketball” he was supposed to be announcing.
“We did a VO of the moment of silence in Ann Arbor. 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 tweeted, then deleted, according to Awful Announcing.
Scott claimed he was speaking of the moment of silence for those killed in the Michigan State shooting on Feb. 13, during which three were killed and five more injured.
According to the New York Post, Scott further explained, “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.”
The Twitter user Scott was debating over the matter, though, would not accept Scott’s explanation that by “actual basketball,” he just meant the game and was not referring to women’s basketball at all.
Scott closed out his debate with the fan, saying, “I’m not arguing your feelings. I hear you and I understand you. I’d feel the same way if I heard it the way you did.”
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