Miami Heat center Meyers Leonard will be out indefinitely after using an anti-Semitic insult while playing Call of Duty during a Twitch video that appeared on social media on Tuesday afternoon.
The organization issued a statement 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 the hateful language of anyone associated with our franchise,” the statement said. “Hearing it from a Miami Heat player is especially disappointing and detrimental to everyone who works here, as well as to the larger communities of South Florida, the Miami Heat and the NBA.
“Meyers Leonard will be out of the team indefinitely. The Miami Heat will cooperate with the NBA while conducting its investigation.”
In the video that appeared on social media, Leonard can be heard saying, “F —— cowards, not me f —— shotgun up f —— k — b —-.”
Leonard apologized Tuesday evening, saying he deeply felt the use of slang during the live broadcast and did not know what the word meant.
“My ignorance of history and its offensive to the Jewish community is absolutely not an excuse and I was wrong,” Leonard said. “I am now more aware of its meaning and I am committed to properly seeking out people who can help me educate myself about this type of hatred and how we can combat it.
“It’s not a proper representation of who I am and I want to apologize to the Arisons, my teammates, the coaches, the office, and all the associates in the Miami Heat organization.”
Leonard, 29, has about 70,000 followers on Twitch. On Tuesday it was in full swing when the clip appeared on Twitter and went viral.
Around the NBA, Leonard is an avid streamer. In April 2020 it was played live playing 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.