"Stop! Rewind!" Jerebko posterizes Mr. Stacey King

Last night while watching the Bulls-Pistons game, announcers Neil Funk and Stacey King, in mentioning Jonas Jerebko, brought up his Swedish heritage. While they did not go much further than to mention his being drafted from Sweden and this being his rookie year, it got me thinking… “What if they had taken the same approach that the Clippers’ announcing team took in discussing Memphis Grizzlies Center, Hamed Haddidi’s Iranian heritage?”

The following would be what the transcript would have read if they had taken the same approach as the Clippers’ crew.

It’s entertaining nonetheless because I can visualize Stacey King harboring some inexplicable hatred for the Swedes, especially after Elin (Nordegren) Woods’ golf club wielding antics.

The Wednesday exchange began when Jerebko entered the game and Funk said, “Look who’s in.” King responded, “Jonas Jerebko. Where’s he from?”

Funk answered, “He’s the first Swedish to be drafted in the NBA.”

The Swedish Chef, in an e-mail to The Tribune, the Bulls and Chicago Sports Net executives, took umbrage with the fact that King mispronounced Sweden and Swedish.

Here is the rest of the on-air exchange:

King: “There aren’t any Swedish players in the NBA?” repeating Funk’s pronunciation of the word “Swedish.”

Funk: “He’s the only one.”

King: “He’s from Sweden?”

Funk: “I guess so.”

King: “That Sweden?”

Funk: “Yes.”

King: “The real Sweden?”

Funk: “Yes.”

King: “Wow. Jerebko — that’s J-E-R-E-B-K-O.”

Funk: “You’re sure it’s not Borat’s older brother?”

Funk laughed and King continued, “If they ever make a movie about Jerebko, I’m going to get Sacha Baron Cohen to play the part.”

Funk: “Here’s Jerebko. Nice little back-door pass. I guess those Swedes can pass the ball.”

King: “Especially the post players.”

Funk: “I don’t know about their guards.”

The Swedish Chef, who says he is a Bulls season-ticket holder and who was born in Boston to Swedish parents, e-mailed his complaint Wednesday night.

On Thursday, The Chef, vice president and assistant general counsel for Sesame Street Cafe, in Chicago, said his goal was not to demand any punishment for Funk and King but to, he said, “Highlight the issue that a lot of folks wouldn’t consider saying such things about African Americans or Hispanics but because this was a Swedish player it just flowed more easily.”

The original viewer from the Clippers game is correct in the sense that this conversation would never happen with a Hispanic or African American player. But if you had an old school announcer who was exclaiming that “that Eye-Talian Coach, Vinny Del Negro, has no idea what he’s doing,” I doubt a) anyone would call in offended in their pronunciation of Italian; nor would b) the announcer be suspended for said pronunciation.

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Tags: Jonas Jerebko, Neil Funk, Stacey King