Former ESPN analyst Doug Alder is suing the network for wrongful termination over comments he made about Venus Williams during the Australian open.
Adler claims he described Williams as having a “guerrilla” style of play rather than a “gorilla” style of play, the latter of which was interpreted as a racially charged remark and led to his dismissal following a Jan. 18 match.
The Los Angeles Superior Court complaint argues that tennis experts use the term “guerrilla tennis” to describe aggressive play, and that ESPN “bowed to the Twitter universe of haters and those ignorant of tennis who thought (Adler) used the word ‘gorilla’ to describe Venus Williams that day.