Ernie Johnson and the Inside the NBA crew were forced to apologize after incorrectly claiming former NBA star Billy Ray Bates was dead.
The apology took place before the New York Knicks took on the Detroit Pistons in Game 2 of their first-round Eastern Conference series on Monday.
Johnson directed the apology to Bates and his family.
“We would like to issue a correction and an apology for something that happened last night on ‘Inside the NBA,’” he began.
“We were talking about Billy Ray Bates, who back in 1980 had one of the NBA’s best playoff debuts coming off the bench with 29 points.
“In the course of our discussion, we passed on some bad information that Billy Ray Bates had passed away.
“While it was inadvertent, it was also inaccurate and insensitive and inexcusable. In short, we screwed up.”
“And we apologize to Billy Ray Bates and his family.”
It was Shaquille O’Neal — who later stormed off set to run to the toilet — who wrongly claimed that Bates was dead after the crew had been hailing the ex-Blazers star.
It began when Johnson, O’Neal, Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith were talking about players who scored the most points off the bench in their playoff debut.
When Bates’ 29-point playoff debut in 1980 came up, Barkley said: “I wonder if he’s still alive. This is a fair question.”
Johnson quickly interrupted: “Not unless you know the answer you do not need to ask a question like that.”
O’Neal answered Barkley by wrongly saying Bates did indeed pass away.
Bizarrely the conversation about Bates continued, and the show received criticism for it, as they could have just quickly searched for the answer.
In the end, an apology was issued, and Bates was rightly praised as having one of the best playoff debuts ever.
The former Trail Blazer had a prolific playoff scoring record despite a short career in the NBA.
In six playoff games for Portland between 1980 and 1981, Bates averaged 26.7 points in 36.5 minutes per game.
His highest scoring average in the regular season was during the 1980-81 season, which saw him score 13.8 points per game in 20.3 minutes a night.
Along with the Blazers, the 68-year-old also played for the Washington Bullets and Los Angeles Lakers.
