Courtesy Deseret News

(June 4, 2010) A Miami sports-talk radio host has been orally reprimanded for his comments regarding Utah and the believers of its predominant religion, made while questioning Jazz power forward Carlos Boozer during an on-air interview earlier this week.

WQAM 560-AM host Sid Rosenberg called Utah "gorgeous" but "a horrible place to live, horrible," and asked Boozer, "But those Mormon people are crazy, aren't they?"

Boozer — who makes his offseason home in the Miami area, and went on the show to promote his charity-supporting basketball camps — responded that Utah is "beautiful" and "a great place to raise your kids.''

The two-time NBA All-Star also said multiple times that the state's many Mormon residents are "not bad at all."

WQAM operations manager Lee Feldman said via e-mail Thursday that "Sid was given a verbal warning and has been told to stay away from religion as a whole."

Feldman said also said he feels "that this whole thing has been blown way out proportion" and that Rosenberg "asked the question if Mormons were crazy in a very tongue-and-cheek manner and absolutely no malice was intended."

"I know Sid and he is not a bigot, nor does he have a hateful bone in his body," Feldman wrote.

Added Feldman: "As far as taking a shot at Utah, Sid said that it was beautiful but a horrible place to live, which is a matter of opinion."

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