ESPN aired a special NFL Fantasy Football segment on Tuesday showing mostly African-American players being auctioned off. While the league is dominated by these athletes, what made the piece more controversial was that the bidders were mostly white.
The sports network drew a lot of flak for it, and many voiced out their displeasure, including Golden State Warriors star forward Kevin Durant. The reigning Finals MVP took to his Twitter account to point out that it wasn’t the best of ideas ESPN came up with, and that he took exception to it.
Bum ass espn running out of ideas…. pic.twitter.com/4QVTtncN6R
— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) August 16, 2017
ESPN then issued a statement via A.J. Perez of USA Today Sports, where they apologized if they offended anyone with it, but made it clear that it wasn’t their intention.
“Auction drafts are a common part of fantasy football, and ESPN’s segments replicated an auction draft with a diverse slate of top professional football players. Without that context, we understand the optics could be portrayed as offensive, and we apologize.”
With the developments that have stemmed from the controversial ad, it's safe to say ESPN may be looking into coming up with new ideas to present their NFL Fantasy Football draft in a more careful manner next time to avoid negative reactions from players and the public.
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