Rutgers fires basketball coach amid PR firestorm
Mike Rice got the boot less than 24 hours after an ESPN story showed video of the coach shoving and tossing balls at his players, and calling them gay slurs. UPDATE: He apologized to ABC News.
That was quick.
Rutgers University fired its men’s basketball coach Mike Rice less than 24 hours after ESPN aired a report showing him grabbing players, throwing balls at them, and calling them homophobic slurs.
President Barchi and Tim Pernetti announced this morning that Mike Rice will not continue to coach at #Rutgers.
— Rutgers University (@RutgersU) April 3, 2013
The report, which aired Tuesday night, sparked social media outrage and even drew a response from New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who was “obviously disturbed.” Rutgers is the state university of New Jersey. Its men’s basketball team finished the 2012-13 season with 15 wins and 16 losses.
As ESPN reports:
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