The Miami Heat center, Meyers Leonard, will be absent indefinitely after using an anti-Semitic injury while playing Call to action during a Twitch video stream that appeared on social media on Tuesday afternoon.
The organization issued a statement Tuesday night, saying it “condemns the use of any form of hate speech”.
“The words used by Meyers Leonard were wrong and we will not tolerate the hateful language of anyone associated with our franchise,” the statement said. “Hearing this from a Miami Heat player is especially disappointing and painful for everyone who works here, as well as for the larger South Florida, Miami Heat and NBA communities.
“Meyers Leonard will be out of the team indefinitely. The Miami Heat will cooperate with the NBA while conducting its investigation.”
In the video that appeared on social media, Leonard can be heard saying, “F —— cowards, don’t f —— make fun of me, you f —— k — b —-.”
Leonard apologized on Tuesday night, saying he was deeply sorry for using slander during the live broadcast and for not knowing what the word meant.
“My ignorance of the story and how it is offensive to the Jewish community is not an excuse at all and I was just wrong,” said Leonard. “Now I am more aware of its meaning and I am committed to properly seeking out people who can help educate me about this type of hatred and how we can fight it.
“This is not an adequate representation of who I am and I want to apologize to the Arisons, my teammates, coaches, front office and everyone associated with the Miami Heat organization.”
Leonard, 29, has almost 70,000 followers on Twitch. He was in the middle of streaming on Tuesday when the clip appeared on Twitter and went viral.
In the NBA, Leonard is an avid streamer. In April 2020, he was broadcast playing Call to action for 26 hours as part of a fundraiser, raising more than $ 45,000 for Feeding America, an organization with more than 200 food banks.