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Meyers Leonard is indefinitely out of the Miami Heat after shouting an anti-Semitic slur during a video game stream, which left his coach and teammates to deal with the matter on Wednesday.
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra and Heat veterans Udonis Haslem and Andre Iguodala have all denounced Leonard’s insult, saying such language was unwelcome in their organization. Leonard was already out for the season with a shoulder injury, and it’s unclear when he’ll return to the locker room.
Leonard has issued a statement apologize for the insult while claiming not to know the meaning at the time.
Spoelstra gave Leonard a character endorsement, but pointed out the pain created by the word:
A lot of emotions. Yes, very disappointed. These words are extremely hurtful. We do not tolerate this. There is so much more to be done in terms of education and what is right versus what is wrong. We know Meyers, Meyers was a very good teammate, he’s a good human being. He said something extremely nasty and hurtful, and we have the consequences of that left.
We do not tolerate this, of course. It was a disappointing day. We’ve had a few conservations here as a team. I spoke to Meyers, he feels really bad about it. Regardless of the intention, it just isn’t fair. “
According to the Associated Press, Spoelstra added that he told Leonard “there are consequences to words.”
In addition to his suspension from the Heat, Leonard was banned from Twitch, the platform on which he uttered the insult, and was dropped by two of its game sponsors. NBA also looked into the incident.
Haslem, the oldest player in the NBA, quoted his Jewish friends in his apologies, saying he told them about the incident:
It’s unfortunate, obviously with social media these days. Things have spread like wildfire. It is regrettable. We cannot tolerate this here. Good is good and bad is wrong. Since I’m here in this organization and until the day I leave this organization and beyond, we’re going to try to be on the safe side of everything, especially issues like this.
From the bottom of our hearts and from this organization, we apologize. It will not be tolerated here. We’re going to be on the safe side of these things in the future. I have felt it. I have a lot of Jewish friends. They sometimes call me Udonis Haslem-berg, so I felt it. I reached out to a few of them after this happened, just to see how they were feeling and to make sure they were okay and let them know that we don’t tolerate this and that it will be. not tolerated here and that they can continue. be sure that stuff doesn’t happen here in this locker room.
When asked if Leonard had ever used such language around him, Haslem replied no.
Iguodala also appealed to Leonard be held accountable and learn from experience:
I think people need to be held accountable for their actions. Same thing in this scenario. You have to be held accountable, you have to truly understand your own actions. You just have to wake up and realize that it is not right and that it is for him to right this wrong and it is up to all of you, not even us to correct this wrong, but to hold him accountable.
I don’t think it’s up to us to figure that out. It is up to him to try to correct this problem and to understand himself. He’s put a lot of work into becoming a professional basketball player, so he’s got the courage to do that work to train himself.
It appears that no other NBA player has yet spoken out against Leonard’s insult, although Julian Edelman of the New England Patriots, who is Jewish, posted an open letter Wednesday morning calling her “destructive” and inviting Leonard at a Shabbat dinner.
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