Clips announcers apologizes to Haddadi

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http://www.nba.com/2009/news/11/29/anno ... ef:nbahpt2

-- Clippers play-by-play man Ralph Lawler and color analyst Michael Smith met with Grizzlies center Hamed Haddadi before Sunday's game at Staples Center, where they expressed regret for an incident that earned the TV broadcasters a one-game suspension.



It was the first meeting between the teams since Lawler's and Smith's off-the-cuff remarks about the Iranian-born center during the final minutes of the Clippers' 106-91 loss at Memphis on Nov. 18. One offended viewer sent an e-mail to the Fox Sports Prime Ticket network.

"It went really well," Lawler told the Associated Press, about an hour before tipoff. "It was really good to get a chance to shake his hand and look him in the eye. We reached out to him, he reached back, and I feel real good about it."

Before Lawler and Smith spoke with Haddadi in the Grizzlies' dressing room, they had a conversation with his agent and three representatives of the Alliance of Iranian Americans in another room that coach Mike Dunleavy uses for his postgame press conferences.