The reason I put a question mark is because I have never heard the term “Dr. Slave Driver” in my life and I have no idea who the hell Bill Walton’s talking about. For all I know, Dr. Slave Driver could be one of Walton’s black friends who he’s known for decades and has an incredible relationship with. Not defending him, I’m just saying, I can’t call something racist without having any clue what the hell he’s talking about. Defining something without knowing anything about it is the definition of ignorance.
For all we know, Walton could have eaten an entire eighth of shrooms before the game and they might’ve just kicked in. Maybe he was literally seeing a Django Unchained-esque figure strolling through the arena. I don’t know.
What I do know is that ESPN was having none of it, cutting Walton’s mic immediately after it happened.
[protected-iframe id=”e7a9817a2ad28b2dbc63c00998b198cd-3508545-91726680″ info=”https://streamable.com/e/eyntj?r=p” ]
It goes without saying that people were none too pleased:
https://twitter.com/hurtz_nathan/status/832061621723811840
"Dr. Slave-driver" .. .. whoops. 🤐
— Jacob Lines (@JT_Lines) February 16, 2017
https://twitter.com/Hansen23_Tre/status/832035545899491330
https://twitter.com/lylestyle23/status/832035412839247872
@ESPN Just to let you know @BillWalton just referred to someone on the production team as "Dr. SLAVE DRIVER" Mmmmm… #Trumpish
— BeHoward (@behoward615) February 16, 2017
Based on what I know about Bill Walton, which is A.) that he played basketball at UCLA and in the NBA for decades and B.) that he’s a f*cking hippie, I have a hard time imaging that Bill Walton being a racist.
That said, stranger things have certainly happened.
