The name John Focke is very familiar to WNBA fans – particularly fans of the Minnesota Lynx.
Focke was the long-time radio voice of Minnesota Lynx games on 106.1 Bob FM in the Twin Cities before he departed from Minnesota and went south to Charlotte to become the new play-by-play voice of Hornets games on WFNZ 610 The Fan.
Sloane Martin, who is also a reporter for WCCO-AM 830, took Focke’s place.
Focke has found himself in a bit of hot water as of late for a controversial and eye-opening tweet he sent while watching a Utah Jazz-Denver Nuggets playoff game.
The Charlotte Hornets have indefinitely suspended radio play-by-play announcer John Focke after a tweet he sent Monday which included the N-word, per https://t.co/DLwZUwC8Bb pic.twitter.com/lbNQrTe4lt
— NBA Central (@TheNBACentral) August 18, 2020
Instead of tweeting “Nuggets,” in reference to the Denver team, he tweeted the n-word, which earned him an indefinite suspension via the Hornets.
The coach and general manager of the Lynx, Cheryl Reeve, of course knows Focke well … and took to Twitter to give her take on the matter.
— Cheryl Reeve (@LynxCoachReeve) August 19, 2020
Focke himself also took to his Twitter and addressed the controversy.
— John Focke (@JWFOCKE) August 18, 2020
