College of Charleston’s freshman phenom Adjehi Baru made Thursday’s SportsCenter Top 10, coming in at No. 6 with a highlight of his devastating block in the Cougars’ win over Georgia Southern the night before. Now, you’d all think this is a great accomplishment for Adjehi and his teammates as they hunt for a spot in the NCAA Tournament, and it certainly is. However, in what has been a recently well-documented struggle for the “premier” sports network, ESPN dropped the ball once again, butchering Baru’s first name, Adjehi (pronounced Uh-jie). The analyst, Stan Verrett, took a noticeable pause before attempting the Ivory Coast native’s first name, finally collecting himself and blabbering “Oo-jee” on the program, which airs nationally. Nice try, Stan.
Last week, ESPN was hammered after publishing a racially charged headline on their website about Jeremy Lin, the New York Knicks’ Asian-American star experiencing “Linsane” fame as of late (I’m tired of the puns, too, and I apologize. It’s a writing tool.). The headline, reading “A Chink in the Armor,” received sizeable backlash, ultimately resulting in the firing of and apology from Anthony Federico, the journalist responsible for the lapse in judgment.
Unfortunately, Adjehi and the Cougars fell victim to another one of the network’s blunders on Thursday night. Whether or not ESPN knows the name of the College of Charleston’s budding star, we do, and we recommend keeping an eye out for the highlight of his serious swat today.
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