The Trail Blazers Broadcast Made An Insensitive Joke About New Orleans’ ‘Levee’ Breaking


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Things haven’t gone very well for the New Orleans Pelicans this season, and the Portland Trail Blazers TV broadcast made things worse on Tuesday night.

Anthony Davis exited the Pelicans/Blazers game on Tuesday night with an apparent injury, but he wasn’t the only one who left the contest hurt. Blazers TV personality Kevin Calabro made a joke about levees that many felt was a reference to Hurricane Katrina.

The moment came after a Damian Lillard basket that extended the Portland lead to 92-81 with 6:19 left in the fourth quarter on Tuesday. The big shot put the Pelicans on the brink of being unable to come back in the game, which they eventually lost, 103-93, to start the season 1-3. Calabro decided to have a bit of fun with the moment, but ended up saying something he soon regretted.

“Did the levee break? It’s leaking … it’s leaking,” Calabro cried.

“There’s some stuff coming through there,” broadcast Lamar Hurd said before laughing.

Fans weren’t thrilled about the reference on Twitter, many of them directly mentioning the broadcasters to show their displeasure.

Some just asked that the pair be better than that kind of joke, meant harmlessly or otherwise.

After the game, Calabro addressed the comment by quote retweeting a fan’s criticism and issuing an apology.

“Agreed. My apologies. Got carried away “the levees leaking”,” the poorly-kerned apology read. I love NOLA.”

It was good that Calabro got out in front of what was an unfortunate joke for many in the New Orleans area. Though Hurricane Katrina happened more than 12 years ago, the city still isn’t over the disaster and the lives of many in New Orleans have never been the same.

As a brief rule of thumb: the line between clever and offensive is crossed when there’s a real human cost to the joke you might want to say on air. I’m sure Calabro will handle Pelicans games a bit differently next time.

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