“First of all, I would tell them that I’m really sorry if I’ve done anything that has offended them,” Justice told WCHS, a local ABC affiliate, about the people who were offended. “But secondly, I would just say this, Barack Obama used that term.”

“If we need to use another term, we would say ― you know, if I could take it back, surely I would take it back because, you know, I never dreamed it would bother anyone,” he concluded.

The governor’s insult came after a scuffle between a Greenbrier East fan and Woodrow Wilson assistant coach Gene Nabors during a timeout, which led head coach Brian Nabors to take his team off the floor. It had been a tense game between high school rivals that began with a Greenbrier East player elbowing a Woodrow Wilson player in the face, local news outlets reported.