The NBA has fined Heat center Meyers Leonard $50K for making an anti-Semitic comment, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic. Leonard has also been suspended for a week from all Heat facilities and team activities. The $50K fine is the largest allowable under league rules.
Leonard, who uttered the slur during a video game livestream, will also be required to take part in a cultural diversity program (Twitter link).
“Meyers Leonard’s comment was inexcusable and hurtful, and such an offensive term has no place in the NBA or in our society,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement. “Yesterday he spoke to representatives of the Anti-Defamation League to better understand the impact of his words and we accept that he is genuinely remorseful. We have further communicated to Meyers that derogatory comments like this will not be tolerated and that he will be expected to uphold the core values of our league — equality, tolerance, inclusion and respect — at all times moving forward.” (Twitter link)
Leonard’s offensive comment came while he was playing “Call of Duty: Warzone” on Twitch. He issued an apology, calling it “not a proper representation of who I am.” Leonard is out for the rest of the season with a shoulder injury and has a $10.1MM team option for next season.
Because Leonard is currently injured, he won’t forfeit salary for the games he misses during his week-long suspension, per ESPN’s Bobby Marks.
$50G’s and sensitivity training not a bad deal
And yet his defenders were howling and whining about Cancel Culture. Seems like an appropriate punishment, would like to see him take Julian Edelman up on his offer.
What type of punishment did harrel receive?
Good question
How is this guy making 10 million dollars? Lol
He has the mind of a 15 year old, its a sick world we live in.
You’ve said dumb things too. He’s being punished and will learn.
@ironmonger835, I ask that question to myself ALL the time about A LOT of players. NBA players that aren’t superstars are paid better than superstars in other sports. It’s CRAZY!!
@Thrasher77: it’s because the roster size is so small compared to other sports. Hockey is the closest, but their roster size is 50% larger. Baseball’s roster size is almost double, and even then, there’s a ton of scrubs making bank.
He’s 29 years old but mentally is 15. He makes $10 million a year. Great world we live in.
Yeah we saw it the first time you posted it.
Yeah Martin we saw it the first time
i mean cmon. sure none of these guys provide enough to society to be paid crazy money, but man Marty, you gotta know why they make the money they do.
CODWZ has that effect on people, I guess
hope he feels lucky he got off easy. again, whether or not punishment was valid, he should have known not to do this and could have faced a lot worse.
Cant even make a white men can’t jump joke without being moderated out? Seems about right.
great hoops movie, i like blue chips too.
Might want to match that fine in the form of a donation to a Holocaust Survivor fund or something of that ilk.
Are there still survivors alive? Maybe there is a for the families of survivors, but WW2 was ages ago can’t be a lot of living survivors at this point.
There are a lot of liviing survivors. There are around 190,000 in Israel alone. link to hamodia.com
Can we get a soundbite of Leonard laughing at the $50,000 fine..
Might be the kind of thing encouraging expectations of an early exit among Heat players… as in, just not their year. Pulling that stunt in Miami of all places.
People talk about the language, but that was not the worst thing. He was labeling who he was pretend-shooting at.