Miami Heat center Meyers Leonard was playing Call of Duty on a Twitch stream on Tuesday when he yelled out an anti-Semitic slur while trash talking with other people who were playing the game with him.
It was a very ugly moment that was quickly followed by Leonard taking a phone call and then ending his game because he said his wife needed him.
Hours later Leonard, who has been out with a shoulder injury since January, posted a statement on Instagram in which he apologized for using the slur and said that he didn’t know how awful the word was.
For real.
Here’s Leonard’s statement:
Meyers Leonard releases a statement apologizing for his use of an anti-Semitic slur on a live stream pic.twitter.com/4iaTEdZCuL
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) March 10, 2021
Come on, man.
Twitter had reactions:
Meyers Leonard is 29 years old. Nobody believes the “I didn’t know what the word meant” part of this apology. https://t.co/0vryV8jmGw
— Myron Medcalf (@MedcalfByESPN) March 10, 2021
Meyers Leonard apology isn’t worth 2 cents. He can keep it and keep it moving.
— Torrey Smith (@TorreySmithWR) March 9, 2021
“I acknowledge and own my mistake,” he says, right after preposterously claiming he had no idea what the word meant https://t.co/WRZPpiLbhJ
— Tom (@TJFsports) March 10, 2021
you gotta be deep in your racism bag to pull out that word. meyers leonard has a database of words in his brain
— charles (nba top shot investigator) mcdonald (@FourVerts) March 10, 2021
me seeing meyers leonard wrote a dissertation length apology pic.twitter.com/GRuXMv8xee
— Desus Nice (@desusnice) March 10, 2021
Someone please ask Meyers Leonard what he thought that word meant.
— Stephen Douglas (@Stephen_Douglas) March 10, 2021
Meyers Leonard used the word in a CLEARLY derogatory fashion then tried to play it off like he’s an innocent child who didn’t know any better
That man is 29 years of age
— Tyler Conway (@jtylerconway) March 10, 2021
I always thought Meyers Leonard was a big lunkhead dope. But he’s actually worse than that.
— Mike Missanelli (@MikeMiss25) March 10, 2021