The Hate Aimed Towards ESPN’s Malika Andrews Is Unwarranted

A friend recently asked me, “Why is Twitter bullying Malika Andrews?” and you, the reader, may be wondering the same thing. So let me fill you in.

On Sept. 23, Andrews appeared on First Take with Stephen A. Smith to discuss Ime Udoka’s one-year suspension and the press conference Celtics executives had following the suspension. The two disagreed on how the organization was handling Udoka’s punishment.

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Stephen A Smith and Malika Andrews Argue Over Ime Udoka Suspension! ESPN First Take NBA Celtics

Earlier this week, on Monday, Sept. 27, Andrews read off the resumé for Joe Mazzulla, an assistant coach for the Boston Celtics last season who was recently announced as the interim coach following the suspension of Udoka.

Shortly after pointing out his experience, Andrews shared that Mazzulla was arrested twice while he was playing basketball at West Virginia University.

All of sudden, it’s an all-out hatefest aimed at Andrews, with users on Twitter claiming that she “hates” Black men. People even went as far as to petition for former ESPN sportscaster Rachel Nichols to replace Andrews.

Then, people started to bring up videos not even relating to the Udoka situation, with any clip that shows Andrews disagreeing with Black men, such as these:

The hate aimed towards Andrews is unwarranted and frankly unfair. As a journalist, you have a responsibility to lay out the facts and give context to your audience. Mazzulla’s criminal history is something basketball fans should be aware of.

When Jason Kidd was being considered as the head coach of the Dallas Mavericks, there were questions about his criminal history. When Chauncey Billups was being considered as the head coach of the Portland Trailblazers there were also questions about his criminal history. Where’s the hate towards them? There wasn’t any. Do you know why? Because those publications were doing their jobs as journalists.

Andrews did not question the hire, she just laid out the facts, which is important because Udoka was suspended over an inappropriate consensual relationship with a Celtics employee.

One user on Twitter even went as far as to say, “I do think she has issues with Black men, bringing up Joe Mazzulla’s legal issues from 2008 is yellow journalism. She lost credibility with me when she did that.”

Yellow journalism? Really? Do you even know what that means? Yellow journalism is reporting that is based on sensationalism and not any well-researched facts. That is not what Malika Andrews did. She was not speculating if Mazzulla was arrested or not. She was stating a fact that is part of Mazzulla’s history.

If you want to disagree with Andrews over her take on who’s going to win the NBA Finals or whether or not Dillon Brooks purposefully tried to hurt Gar Payton II, go on ahead. But claiming that she hates Black men? Miss me with that.