By: Debadrita Ghosh Image credit: NBA and Twitter.
Meyers Leonard, former player for the Miami Heat, said the term "kike" while livestreaming a "Call of Duty" video game on the Twitch platform back in March 2022.
Nearly 2 years after he was discovered uttering an antisemitic slur on a video gaming platform, Meyers Leonard spoke about the incident and his following path towards forgiveness in an interview with Jewish ESPN reporter Jeremy Schaap.
Leonard said: "I know that I made a huge, huge mistake." He also added: "And like, how in the world did this ever happen? I couldn’t harm a fly.”
Leonard apologized the following day, writing: "I am deeply sorry for using an antisemitic slur during a livestream yesterday. While I didn’t know what the word meant at the time,....."
He continued: "my ignorance about its history and how offensive it is to the Jewish community is absolutely not an excuse and I was just wrong.”
Meyers was injured at the time he uttered the word and has not participated in NBA games since then. But now that he is fit, he is trying to make a comeback. He recently participated in a LA Lakers workout.
Leonard said to the ESPN Daily Podcast: “I felt like I had just destroyed my life and everything that I had worked for, to be honest,” relaying his experience of antisemitism.
Leonard also told Schaap about the difficulty the mistake had caused him. He said that he needed 24-hour security due to the threats made against him and his family. He said that he even thought of taking his own life, and he has still not forgiven himself.
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