Just days before college basketball star Juju Watkins unfortunately tore her ACL, the University of Southern California was in the news for a different reason. A white woman covering an NCAA tournament game made some comments that had Black Twitter ready to go to war.
On Saturday, as the USC women’s basketball team was playing a first-round tournament game against UNC Greensboro, ESPN sideline reporter Holly Rowe was discussing Watkins’ impact on the University.
However, in her attempt to compliment the star guard, Rowe did the opposite.
“She [Watkins] is a cultural icon here in LA. I was at a game here last year, and I thought I was at the BET Awards,” said Rowe. “Every star in that community… We’ve seen so many people that just want to get a glimpse of her.”
To no surprise, several Black people on Twitter caught wind of Rowe’s comments and made sure to criticize the veteran sports commentator for comments.
@805jus wrote on X, “Holly Rowe said Juju Watkins turned USC into the BET Awards. That’s not crazy ????? Lol.”
@All_N_Yo_Tweets said, “Holly Rowe basically said it was a lot of n****s at USC games..”
@QueenHer11 commented on X, “Holly Rowe just said she felt like she was at the BET Awards at a USC game. She said “every star in THAT community” was there. Interesting choice of words.”
The opinions of Rowe’s comments didn’t stop there, as plenty more people posted about what was said over the weekend.
Despite the clip of Rowe’s words going viral, the ESPN reporter has yet to comment on the situation. The only thing she’s said regarding USC or Watkins has been about the 19-year-old’s tragic injury on Monday.
In a post on X, she wrote, “Just heart sick. Sending love and healing to JuJu.”