ESPN Under Fire After Posting Bizarre Black History Month Graphic During ACC Basketball Game

All throughout the month of February, ESPN, like many other networks, has celebrated Black History Month in various fashions.

They continued to do so during Saturday’s broadcast of an ACC basketball game between the Virginia Cavaliers and North Carolina Tar Heels.

But the way they chose to do so has since landed the broadcasting giant in some hot water.

During the contest, ESPN put up a graphic noting that nine of 14 ACC men’s basketball coaches are black. But rather than just stating that, for some reason, the graphic read “ACC Head Coaches Who Happen To Be Black.”

Ooookay then? As if they just woke up one morning and, by some happenstance, wound up black.

The graphic drew plenty of blowback and, most of all, a lot of confusion.

While the graphic was on screen, play-by-play man Dave O’Brien and analyst Cory Alexander discussed a number of topics. Most notably, they noted that the ACC has the highest percentage of black head coaches in any Power Five conference and that conference led the way with previous hires.

Then Alexander makes another notable point.

“We’ll get to a point where we’re not concerned about the color of the coach’s skin and simply that these are very good basketball coaches leading great basketball programs,” he says.

The point of the conversation made complete sense. However, it doesn’t explain why the phrasing of the graphic was so strange and who decided on that.

But hey, at least it wasn’t as bad as the UFC’s attempt at celebrating Black History Month a few years back.