Miami Heat big man Meyers Leonard has made a name for himself as a video game streamer of late.
On Tuesday, he got himself into a lot of trouble when a video surfaced of him shouting an anti-Semitic slur while playing “Call of Duty: Warzone.”
Meyers Leonard says racial slurs while playing CoD pic.twitter.com/WHwUnbV0pR
— Main Team (@MainTeamSports) March 9, 2021
The video quickly made the rounds, with at least one player that Leonard often teams up with have coming forward to denounce the utterance.
Me laughing at this was fucked up, and was me being ignorant to what the word means and it’s impact. Not okay.
I try my best to keep my stream friendly to those who stop in.
I learned and I’m sorry for laughing. https://t.co/QyoWpUDYpM
— OpTic TeeP (@TylerTeeP) March 9, 2021
Of course, Leonard faced flack when he refused to kneel with his teammates during the national anthem in the NBA’s bubble. Though he offered a reasonable explanation behind his decision to stand, it certainly rubbed some fans and players around the league the wrong way.
The racist exclamation Leonard said on Tuesday comes at a time when his future with the Heat is already in question.
Leonard will miss the remainder of the 2020-21 season due to a shoulder injury and has a team option on his contract for next season.
While it is possible that Leonard will be forgiven for this incident, it is clear that he has a lot of growing up to do when it comes to the harmful language that is apparently part of his vocabulary.
