Miami Heat center Meyers Leonard was fined $50,000 and barred from all team facilities and activities for one week over an anti-Semitic comment he made on Monday. In a clip posted to Twitter by Main Team Sports, Leonard could be heard saying, “Don’t fucking snipe me, you fucking k--- bitch,” while playing the video game “Call of Duty.”
“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, who is himself Jewish, said in a statement released Thursday. “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.”
Leonard later posted an apology on his Instagram page, saying he didn’t know what “k---” meant, or that it was offensive. The 7’ 1” Leonard made headlines last year for refusing to kneel with his teammates during the national anthem to protest police brutality against African-Americans. One of only two players in the league who chose to remain standing, Leonard said he supported racial justice and the Black Lives Matter movement, but that he didn’t kneel out of respect to his brother, an ex-Marine.