The NBA has fined Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards $40K for his use of “offensive and derogatory language” on social media, per a press release.
The fine is in response to a now-deleted video that Edwards posted to his Instagram account earlier this month. Edwards used homophobic language in the video, disparagingly describing a group of people as “queer.” After removing the video, the former No. 1 overall pick apologized for recording and posting it.
“What I said was immature, hurtful, and disrespectful, and I’m incredibly sorry,” Edwards wrote (Twitter link). “It’s unacceptable for me or anyone to use that language in such a hurtful way, there’s no excuse for it, at all. I was raised better than that!”
The NBA noted in today’s announcement that Edwards “acknowledged that his actions were inappropriate,” suggesting his apology was taken into account as the league weighed potential discipline.
The $40K fine for Edwards is in line with the penalties other stars have faced in recent years for homophobic remarks. Nikola Jokic was fined $25K in 2018 for making such a comment during a post-game interview, while Kevin Durant was fined $50K in 2021 for directing homophobic language toward actor Michael Rapaport on Twitter.
Lmao
Where are the NBA players calling for his removal/ban from the league? Robert Sarver should be banned but what Edwards said is ok, with it being on video apparently. Now I dont really care what Edwards sais, im just trying to make a point
Yep
Sarvers punishment was 250 times more money. But I’m sure we won’t hear bashing on the league for this punishment
One is the boss who supervises numerous people.
One is an employee.
It should be easy to extrapolate out the difference.
One also has a history of misogyny, harassment and racial insensitivity that spans decades while the other said something spur of the moment and apologized.
@Tacocat1331 Sarvers comments were never deemed racist, they were deemed as him quoting another player. As for as the “history of misogney and harrasment”, most NBA players talk about women and gays like they are either objects or third class citizens. They are basically the same as Sarver. Whats hypocritical is that NBA players are calling for Sarver to be banned from the league, even though he does the exact same thing that they do
Silly you. It doesn’t count when a player does something. Meyers Leonard would’ve skated if he hadn’t insulted the ethnicity of his owner at Miami. Players rarely call out the bad actions of other players.
An owner being a racist. In a league that is 70% black. Is nothing like a player using the Q word. Get real
He swears his text was auto-corrected. Happens all the time.
$40,000. WTF? That’s the price of loading his jock with our without socks on.
???? They call themselves that all the time. That is literally what the Q in LGBTQ stands for.
It’s the same reason black people call themselves the N word. Get out from under your rock.
@reflect
the 3 magic words he said were “queer a$$ ni$%$” in describing a group of dudes on a online game chat. they likely weren’t queer and certainly he shouldn’t have used the n$#&& even if he’s not Black. I don’t know if the
l group were or were not Black because many of the younger generation, Black and non- Black use the term n$^^# like they would the pronoun them or the noun group. So you can say to your homie “stop acting queer”. You don’t actually THINK he’s queer but you use the word as if it’s a negative. Almost like if you have a friend that’s cheap and you tell him to “stop acting Jewish”. It’s used as an insult. Like I said it’s unlikely he was actually calling them queer thus calling them “queer” was inappropriate as much as calling them “n!&$%”. As a Black man I try and not use that word towards anyone because it’s very hard for others to know how it’s used in different situations so I’d rather not endorse the use at all do this way they’re aren’t these sort of situations. He likely meant no malice towards the group of kids but it was inappropriate to refer to them using those words in and out of context at all.
Got it. The article didn’t mention him using it as an insult like that.
LGBTQ people don’t use it in a derogatory context like he did. It’s the usage, not the word itself. Nice job trying to equivocate though.
I didn’t hear the context I only read the above article which doesn’t mention any of this. Thanks.
I finally read the full context of his comment. I also read what got Jokic in trouble. Let me just say…. to those not in the hip hop culture. I purposely said “hip hop” culture as opposed to “Black culture”. Sorry y’all. it’s almost impossible for y’all to know what can and can’t be said. Just stick to regular English and try not to be hip. The Jokic one is so funny if you understand it’s purpose and how it’s used. It’s like if one friend is mad at the other and says “yo I’m on your ass James” and because it could be taken another way you follow it with ” no ho–” or “pause”. Me? I say no Hideo Nomo. He was such a great pitcher…. and staunchly heterosexual oh and rhymes with “no ho__ _”
He got off relatively light, but damage to reputation will hurt him more than fine
The NBA cared more about Morey’s Hong Kong tweet