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Meyers Leonard is now threatened with a penalty from the league (archive image)
Photo: Mark J. Terrill / AP / dpa
During a video game broadcast live on the internet, Meyers Leonard of runner-up Miami Heat used anti-Semitic slur and aroused great outrage.
The professional basketball league NBA condemned the incident and is now responding with an investigation against the center.
The Heat wants to cooperate with the NBA.
In a statement they condemned “all forms of hate speech.
The words Meyers Leonard used are wrong.
We will not tolerate hateful language from anyone associated with this franchise. "
Leonard apologizes for ignorance
The basketball player had insulted another player by saying "Kike" during the video game.
This formulation is an English swear word for Jews.
Leonard later apologized and stated that he did not know the meaning of the word.
“I'm very sorry that I used an anti-Semitic insult during the live stream,” the 29-year-old wrote on Instagram: “I didn't know what the word meant, my ignorance is absolutely no excuse and I did wrong. «Three video game companies ended their collaboration with Leonard, who had competed against another player in the first person shooter Call of Duty.
Meanwhile, football star Julian Edelman wrote an open letter to Leonard.
“I think you chose the words out of ignorance, not out of hatred.
You didn't want to hurt anyone, but that's what makes this comment so destructive, "wrote the three-time Super Bowl champion, who is himself Jewish:" Hate is like a virus.
Even if it was an accident, it can spread so quickly. ”Edelman invited Leonard to chat.
Leonard sustained a shoulder injury in January and can no longer play this season.
Now he is threatened with a penalty from the league.
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