Lakers News: LeBron James tweets in support of Adrian Wojnarowski, a timeline

Lakers News: LeBron James tweets in support of Adrian Wojnarowski after his ESPN suspension.

In one of the major shockers of NBA media in 2020, ESPN suspends it’s top NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski for violating company policy sending a email to a Missouri Senator. Lake Show Life breaks down the story in a timeline, including a LeBron James tweet, leading up to this point.

While it only took less than 24 hours for ESPN’s number one NBA insider to make political news, it didn’t take much longer than that for the proverbial shoe to drop. ESPN suspended Adrian Wojnarowski without pay according to Ryan Glasspiegel of Outkick.

Adrian Wojnarowski was scheduled to travel to Florida this week to cover the restart of the NBA season, but the suspension will delay those plans. While he is still expected to be a major part of ESPN’s coverage of the NBA at the bubble in Orlando, reports from the Washington Post claim that the suspension could last one to two weeks.

Lake Show Life breaks down a timeline of what happened that put the biggest NBA insiders in the business on the sidelines.

Josh Hawley, a Republican Missouri Senator, made a statement sent to NBA commissioner Adam Silver, asking why the NBA hasn’t approved slogans supporting the military and law enforcement. Hawley went on to criticize the NBA in other ways.

Caring more about maintaining its business relationship with China than advocating for Hong Kong. Suggesting that the NBA lets players emblazon their jerseys with phrases like “Support Our Troops” and “Free Hong Kong.” 

On Friday morning, Adrian Wojnarowski responded with “F— you”

Josh Hawley released the email on social media sending it specifically to Outkick.  

Adrian Wojnarowski sends an apology for his actions.

ESPN sends out an official statement concerning the situation. Here’s the statement via SI. 

"“This is completely unacceptable behavior and we do not condone it,” the ESPN statement read. “It is inexcusable for anyone working for anyone working for ESPN to respond in the way Adrian did to Senator Hawley. We are addressing it directly with Adrian and specifics of those conversations will remain internal.”"

But it seems that this apology is not enough for Hawley. In a discussion with OutKick’s Jason Whitlock, he lets his intentions known.

"“I want ESPN to ask the NBA why they won’t let players stand up for America and be able to criticize China’s actions,”“But maybe ESPN won’t say anything because they benefit from the NBA’s global presence. Until ESPN speaks out, all they are really doing is enabling the Chinese Communist Party to stifle free speech in America.”"

Most NBA players spoke out on social media in support of Adrian Wojnarowski as the #FreeWoj trended on Twitter. On Sunday, LeBron James took to Twitter to support Wojnarowski.

https://twitter.com/KingJames/status/1282430987272691713

While this story stays fluid, the twenty-two teams are scheduled for scrimmages on July 22nd and will resume the season on July 30th at Walt Disney World. The Walt Disney Company also owns ESPN.