Phelan M. Ebenhack / Associated Press
The NBA announced that the Miami Heat center, Meyers Leonard, was suspended for a week from the team’s facilities and activities and fined $ 50,000 for using an anti-Semitic injury during a live broadcast from Twitch on Monday.
At the NBA launch on Thursday, he noted that Leonard “will also be required to participate in a cultural diversity program”.
In a live video clip posted on social media on Tuesday, Leonard was playing Call of Duty when he said, “P – cowards; b — h,” by ESPN’s Nick Friedell.
The 29-year-old Virginia native posted an apology on Instagram late on Tuesday:
FaZe Clan, an eSports organization that started a business relationship with Leonard after he started streaming on Twitch, confirmed was to “cut ties” with the NBA player.
The Heat announced that Leonard would be “away from the team indefinitely” while the league conducted its investigation into the matter:
“The NBA unequivocally condemns all forms of hate speech,” said NBA spokesman Mike Bass after the league launched the investigation, according to Friedell.
Leonard’s use of slander occurred during a time when anti-Semitism is on the rise in the United States. The Anti-Defamation League reported in 2019, anti-Semitic acts in the U.S. reached their highest level since 1979, an increase of 12% over 2018. Anti-Semitic hate crimes also increased by 14% in 2019, and a Hate Crime Statistics Report The FBI found that more than 60% of all religious-based hate crimes targeted Jews, despite representing less than 2% of the country’s population.
Leonard was already ruled out for the remainder of the 2020-21 season, after undergoing shoulder surgery in February. Miami has a team option in its 2021-22 contract.
The choice of the first round of 2012 joined the Heat as part of a four-team exchange in July 2019. He spent the first seven years of his NBA career with the Portland Trail Blazers.
He averaged 5.6 points and 3.9 rebounds in 447 career games.