Miami Heat big man Meyers Leonard has been fined $50,000 by the NBA for using an anti-Semitic slur during a live stream on Monday, which was uploaded to social media Tuesday morning. In addition to the fine, Leonard will be suspended from participating in all team-related activities for a week, and will be required to go through a cultural diversity program.
In a league statement released Thursday morning, commissioner Adam Silver condemned Leonard's comments:
"Meyers Leonard's comment was inexcusable and hurtful and such an offensive term has no place in the NBA or in our society. 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."
The Heat also released a statement following the punishment handed down by the league:
Today, the NBA announced its discipline of Meyers Leonard, which included the maximum allowable fine of $50,000, a suspension from all HEAT activities for one week, and requiring that he participate in cultural diversity training. While we remain hurt and disappointed by what he said, we are encouraged that Meyers has started to take the necessary steps to educate himself about why his comments were so offensive. We will continue to communicate with Meyers and his representatives while he remains away.
Leonard was playing "Call of Duty: Warzone," and said "F-----g cowards, don't f-----g snipe at me you f-----g k--- b----." The context of the comment as it relates to his gameplay is not clear, as the clip was taken from a stream that was not saved onto his Twitch profile -- streamers can leave older live streams up on their channel if they so choose to.
Leonard issued an apology Tuesday for the incident, and the Heat announced that he would remain away from the team indefinitely as the league investigated the situation. Leonard hasn't played in a game since Jan. 9 as he's recovering from shoulder surgery, and prior to that he only played in three games this season.
