NBA player who shouted antisemitic slur traded — and will not be playing
Meyers Leonard of the Miami Heat By Getty Images
By Benyamin Cohen March 18, 2021
In a move that will take him off the court for awhile, the Miami Heat has traded Meyers Leonard, the NBA star who was recently caught using an antisemitic slur while livestreaming a video game.
The Heat traded Meyers, a 29-year-old power forward, to the Oklahoma City Thunder, but in a somewhat unusual move, the Thunder said it plans to sideline him. “Leonard will not be reporting to Oklahoma City and will not be an active member of the organization,” the team said in a statement on Wednesday.
Instead, Leonard was to be part of a package deal: The Miami Heat also gave the Thunder their second-round pick in the 2027 draft. As part of the deal, forward Trevor Ariza went from Oklahoma to Miami.
Leonard found himself embroiled in controversy earlier this month after he blurted out a string of expletives – including “you f—-ing kike bitch” – while he was playing the video game “Call of Duty,” which he was broadcasting for the general public on the platform Twitch.
The Anti-Defamation League and other groups called for the Miami Heat to take action. NFL star Julian Edelman, one of the most prominent Jewish professional athletes in America, wrote an open letter to Leonard inviting him to a Shabbat dinner in Miami. The invitation is presumably still open, but will perhaps now take place in a different city.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!
