Just ahead of the Big 12 Tournament, the Texas Tech Red Raiders men’s basketball team has suspended head coach Mark Adams. On Thursday morning, Lubbock NBC affiliate KCBD broke that news, with the university soon confirming via a statement:
BREAKING: A source close to the university tells KCBD that Texas Tech Athletic Director Kirby Hocutt has suspended Coach Mark Adams following a comment he made to one of his players. https://t.co/VzlVl7Lzsb
— KCBD NewsChannel11 (@KCBD11) March 5, 2023
Here’s that full statement, from the KCBD piece above:
Texas Tech University has suspended men’s basketball head coach Mark Adams in relation to the use of an inappropriate, unacceptable, and racially insensitive comment last week.
On Friday, Director of Athletics Kirby Hocutt was made aware of an incident regarding a coaching session between Adams and a member of the men’s basketball team. Adams was encouraging the student-athlete to be more receptive to coaching and referenced Bible verses about workers, teachers, parents, and slaves serving their masters. Adams immediately addressed this with the team and apologized.
Upon learning of the incident, Hocutt addressed this matter with Adams and issued him a written reprimand. Hocutt subsequently made the decision to suspend Adams effective immediately in order to conduct a more thorough inquiry of Adams’ interactions with his players and staff.
Jeff Goodman of Stadium has some quotes from Adams on the specific Bible verse in question and his intentions, as well as a separate incident earlier in the year that the player claimed involved spitting:
Adams told Stadium that the comments he made were not racist, and that he was quoting a bible verse when he told one of his players that there is “always a master and a servant.”
“I was quoting the scripture,” Adams told Stadium.
Adams addressed the team the following day, but said it was to explain the situation. He said he did not apologize.
“One of my coaches said it bothered the player,” Adams said.
The quote in question appears to be about Ephesians 6:5-9, a text traditionally attributed as a letter from the apostle Paul to the church in Ephesus around 62 AD (although authorship and date claims vary). Here is the New International Version’s English translation of that text:
5 Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. 6 Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. 7 Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people, 8 because you know that the Lord will reward each one for whatever good they do, whether they are slave or free.
9 And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.
Adams may well have said “servants” instead of “slaves.” Some more recent Biblical translations than the NIV (which first came out in 1978) have made that choice. But the text here was prominently rendered as “slaves” in many English versions of the Bible for a long time, and there is a significant context of slavery in the Roman Empire (with similarities and differences to slavery in other places and periods).
It’s notable to see Adams (seen above during a Feb. 25 game) tell Goodman he didn’t apologize, unlike the university’s statement on the comment. It’s also notable to see him use “I was quoting” as a defense; many people have tried that, with varying degrees of success. And Goodman’s piece also includes that Texas Tech is looking into an earlier incident between Adams and the player in question, with the player claiming Adams spit on him intentionally and Adams saying that was unintentional and because he was sick:
There was also a separate incident earlier in the season the school is also investigating in which Adams spit on the player. Adams told Stadium he had gone to the doctor, had a bad cough and slobbered on the player during the game.
“I can spit on you whenever I want to,” one person close to the situation said Adams responded to the player.
“I don’t remember saying that,” Adams said.
The 66-year old Adams played at Texas’ South Plains College from 1974-76, then transferred to Texas Tech and worked as a graduate assistant while completing his degree. He’s since had a long run as a NCAA head coach and assistant. Most of his head coaching jobs came at lower levels, but he worked as a Red Raiders’ assistant from 2016-21. He got that head job in April 2021 after Chris Beard left for Texas. He led the Red Raiders to a 27-10 record last year, and then a 16-15 mark this season.
This comes amidst wider looks into coaches‘ interactions with players across sports, including in NCAA men’s basketball. A particularly interesting ongoing one in that sport is at New Mexico State, where the Aggies fired head coach Greg Heiar and cancelled the rest of their season around a hazing investigation. For the moment, the Red Raiders look set to keep playing in the Big 12 Tournament (they face the West Virginia Mountaineers in the first round there Wednesday), but Adams may not be on the bench for that. And, as Goodman later noted, he may not be back at all:
One source in the Texas Tech program to @Stadium: “I’d be shocked if Mark Adams coaches another game in Lubbock. Most of the players don’t want to play for him.” https://t.co/v0Ew8Dvkti
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) March 5, 2023
[KCBD, Stadium; photo from Michael C. Johnson/USA Today Sports]
