Report: Warriors co-owner Peter Guber used 'hoodish' in email
Golden State Warriors owner Peter Guber used the word "hoodish" in an email to the franchise Monday, reports Yahoo Sports, which said it obtained the email.
According to the report, a separate team employee earlier forwarded to the franchise a release from the NBA saying the league will have a record 101 international players on team rosters on opening night and mentioned that the Warriors have five international players: Andrew Bogut (Australia), Leandro Barbosa (Brazil), Festus Ezeli (Nigeria), Ognjen Kuzmic and Nemanja Nedovic (both Serbia)
In response, Guber reportedly emailed the following:
"I’m taking rosetta stone to learn Hungarian Serbian Australian swahili and hoodish This year. But it's nice."
Guber said in a later email he had intended to write "Yiddish," not "hoodish."
"Someone just brought to my attention that an email I responded to earlier contains the word 'hoodish,' which I don't even think Is a Word, and certainly not the one I intended to use," Guber wrote in the email. "I intended to type Yiddish. Either my mobile fone [sic] autocorrected or it was typed wrong. In any event I regret if anyone was unintendedly [sic] offended."
It's unclear which of the five players "Yiddish" was supposed to refer to.
The emails and their potential racial implications come after Atlanta Hawks general manager Danny Ferry was found in September to have recounted a racist remark in a scouting report earlier in the offseason and Hawks owner Bruce Levenson was found to have made racist and stereotypical remarks about the team's fan base in an email in 2012.
Ferry is on an indefinite leave of absence, while Levenson announced he will sell his stake in the team.
Last spring, the NBA was embroiled in its most significant racial controversy to date when a recording was released in which Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling made racist remarks about African-Americans. Sterling was eventually banned from the league for life and the NBA forced the sale of the franchise.
Guber, 72, is the chairman and CEO of Mandalay Entertainment. He's been a co-owner of the Warriors since 2010 and is also a minority owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Golden State opens the 2014-15 season Wednesday at the Sacramento Kings.
- Ben Estes
