The recent appearance of NBA and NFL players wearing “#ICantBreathe” shirts in honor of Eric Garner, while calling attention to police accountability, has been generally welcomed. However, a CBS analyst took aim at Kobe Bryant for joining in via Twitter which prompted ESPN’s Keith Olbermann to defend the peaceful protests.
Doug Gottlieb, a former basketball player and analyst for ESPN, currently works for the CBS Sports Radio network. No stranger to controversial statements, Gottlieb took to Twitter to blast Bryant for wearing the #ICantBreathe shirt while mentioning the NBA All-Star’s personal trappings.
“Kobe Bryant lives in Newport Coast, takes a chopper to games, made $60m last 2 years..the struggle is real #ICantBreath,” read the now-deleted tweet.
Gottlieb’s former ESPN colleague Olbermann caught wind of the act, and named the analyst the World’s Worst Person In Sports in a video segment Wednesday (Dec. 10) evening on his program. Olbermann goes for broke in his typically humorous fashion, calling Gottlieb’s opinion “narrow-minded” and “stupid” before the end.
Raw Story transcribed much of Olbermann’s words regarding Gottlieb’s gaffe, and made sure to highlight some of the best parts.
Raw Story writes:
Olbermann also noted that Gottlieb did not even spell the #ICantBreathe hashtag correctly while trying to question Bryant.
“On top of everything else, Doug, you made yourself look like not just insensitive and elitist and cold, you made yourself look like a high-school dropout,” Olbermann said. “Your hashtag should have been #ICantSpell.”
Gottlieb has not commented on his remark regarding Bryant other than to complain that there is “no room for discourse w/people- freedom of speech is for both sides – not just the popular.” Besides Bryant, several NBA players — including Cleveland’s LeBron James, Chicago Bull Derrick Rose, and members of the Brooklyn Nets — have worn “I can’t breathe” shirt before games this week.
Check out Keith Olbermann ripping CBS Sports Radio’s Doug Gottlieb a new one regarding the #ICantBreathe protests in the clip below.
[RawStory]
—
Photo: YouTube
