Miami Heat center Meyers Leonard will be gone indefinitely after using an anti-Semitic insult during the game Call of Duty during a Twitch streaming video that appeared on social media on Tuesday afternoon.
The organization issued a statement on 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 hate speech from anyone associated with our franchise,” the statement said. “Hearing from a Miami Heat player is particularly disappointing and painful for everyone who works here, as well as for the larger communities of South Florida, the Miami Heat and the NBA.
“Meyers Leonard will be away from the team indefinitely. The Miami Heat will cooperate with the NBA as it conducts its investigation.”
On the video that appeared on social networks, Leonard can be heard saying, “F —— cowards, don’t f —— wipe me you f —— k — b —-.”
Leonard apologized on Tuesday night, saying he was very sorry that he used the string during the live stream and that he did not know what the word meant.
“My ignorance of history and how offensive it is to the Jewish community is not an excuse at all, and I was wrong,” Leonard said. “Now I am more aware of its significance and I am committed to looking for people who can educate me properly 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 Arisons, my colleagues, coaches, the office and everyone associated with the Miami Heat.”
Leonard, 29, has nearly 70,000 followers on Twitch. It was in full swing on Tuesday, when the video appeared on Twitter and went viral.
Around the NBA, Leonard is an avid streamer. In April 2020, he played in the stream Call of Duty for 26 hours as part of a fundraiser, raising more than $ 45,000 for Feeding America, an organization of more than 200 food banks.