Funny, I always referred to my children as monkeys and did as well with my grandkids with no racial significance to the term. We simply have gone off the rails looking for stuff that was never meant to demean. The missing element, Common Sense.
I can see both sides of this one. Bottom line: commentators needed to have a little more contextual awareness.
That said, and having read many of the above comments before watching the clip, here's the way I heard the discussion:
Commentator 1: There is a player on the field who seems to have a cramp. Coincidentally (or not), the referees have called for a water break.
Commentator 2: Well, a water break won't help the dude who has a cramp. [As an aside, this is pretty well accepted science . . . the hydration needed to be before the game, if not the day/night before the game.]
Commentator continues: He needs (or needed) pickle juice or bananas. [Again, as an aside, I think pickle juice is generally believed to provide immediate relief for cramps. I know I brought my share of pickle juice to 7 on 7 tournaments when my boys were playing. On the other hand, I don't know if there is a consensus on bananas. My understanding is that bananas are a great source of potassium, which can help prevent cramps, but I don't know if they can put a stop to cramping once the cramping begins. But bananas are routinely provided to athletes in advance of competition and to runners before and during a long race. OK, back to the exchange:]
Commentator [not sure which one, and playing on the common knowledge that bananas are a staple of the monkey/chimpanzee, ape diet] Well, you don't see monkeys getting cramps, now do you? [As if to suggest that if the cramping player had consumed enough bananas before the game, he wouldn't be cramping either.]
The commentators then proceed to have a discussion about whether monkeys ever really do get cramps. One of the commentators seemingly cites his wife as an authority on the subject and concludes that monkeys occasionally do get cramps.
I'm old enough to remember when TV commentator Howard Cosell was fired after saying "look at that little monkey run!" Forget that he used to call his own grandkids "little monkeys," the concern was that he was comparing a black athlete to a monkey on national TV and for that, he lost his job.
So, where do I land on this: right where I started. I don't necessarily see this as a racist exchange, but the commentators should have been more aware of the context in which they were making the statements. Had the discussion taken place earlier in the game, as part of a larger discussion of healthy nutrition, and before an player of any race had started cramping, I don't think anyone would be saying anything. But that's not what happened.