Yeah, the Miami Heat and the NBA are already going down the path of investigation, obviously, for punishment for Meyers, Leonard for his public use of the anti Semitic slur.

And rightfully so.

Because, you know, as an NBA analyst here at ESPN and also a w N b a player who just genuinely loves hoops, basketball is basketball.

This really gave me so much pause yesterday discovering this, and I was out here in Los Angeles working with my agent, who happens to be a young Jewish woman.

And I was reading the story and I grabbed my phone and I pointed to her, and I and I had to ask her what that word was, and she had to educate me on its history.

And I appreciated her taking that time, and I saw a number of people going through that same process of what did he say and why was this even said?

And I think overall, you know, there's zero tolerance for hate speech, period.

As a society, we've been having these conversations, especially after the summer of 2020 where many have been actively educating themselves on how we move, how we stand, how we look to our left and to our right and treat one another right.

And I am.

And I'm talking about not just the black community and the conversations we're having with the white community.

But we're also standing in solidarity now as we're seeing, you know, time go on with the Asian community fighting Asian hate.

And so any time hate speech is involved, we must condemn it.

These are necessary conversations, and they are inclusive conversations for this exact reason.

So, you know, private or public use of any word, it cannot be tolerated.

And that and I just think personally that is on us to govern in our own circles, right for that exact reason.

Now, as it pertains really to the NBA, they're heading down the right path, you know, as he will be away from the team indefinitely.

Mind you, he is already out, you know, for the season with shoulder surgery.

But this allows him to apologize properly to the people you know publicly, which I know he just posted an apology, but also you know, you know, that's a start, but also privately apologized to the people.

You know that he might have offended as well, and he doesn't have to look too far because, you know the Miami Heat owner, Micky Arison, and his son Nick the Heat, you know, CEO, their Jewish.

And so I always say, in this time you have to educate yourself so that you can educate others.

And that's exactly what Meyers Leonard will have to do with his time away.

I wouldn't be surprised with the docking of pay.

And we can't have this standard of Oh, in this culture, this words mean that, you know, means this and like all of it is bad.

This is conduct detrimental to the team.

I think, per, you know, past policies.

A lot of times it comes down to the team conduct policy where they're probably gonna dictate, you know, how many games potentially missed, which means dockage of pay.

But overall, this, you know, conduct.

Even if it was done on his own time on his own dime on his own twitch stream, which, by the way, he's been, I think banned from those partnerships of you know, even if it's done on his own time.

You know it's done in public.

It's done in private.

It's all bad.

And it's all wrong, as any hate speech should fully be condemned.

Now, before we move on, I just want to make one clarification.

He has not been suspended from the Miami Heat team.

He's just away from the team indefinitely as it stands right now, Kimberly.

Yeah.

You know, here's what got me about this whole story.

Um, it wasn't just the use of the slur, that tired apology that he put out And the reason I called tired is because, you know, you said he claimed I didn't know.

Like, I I didn't know what that word really meant, and I don't fault him.

I don't call anyone for not understanding the history of or anything like that.

It's all upon us to get educated on all history, right?

But the way he used it in a string of of words, like, you know, Evan, cowards and all this stuff, like sleeping this like he at least knew it was negative.

Right?

So you may not know how when it started How bad is it?

Like But, you know, it's bad enough where that should not ever come out your mouth.

So to me, when I hear something like this, like if this were an NFL player, like I'm looking at the team like don't, I'd say.

And don't wait for the NFL like the team needs to step in, suspend this person, you know, stuff like that.

Because I find them because to me, there has to be zero tolerance and especially, you know, with with him standing during the anthem last year, I understood, You know, everybody has their preference and what they wanted to do during that.

But he was the only guy on the team that stood up during the anthem.

And he said he even told Mark Spears are undefeated writer, Um, you know, I respect.

I respect patriotism.

Like I have deep patriotism.

I respect black lives matter.

But, you know, I'm rooted deeply in patriotism.

And so to me, I've seen this person now conflate patriotism and protest as if this country wasn't founded on the backs of protests and, you know, fighting oppression and British rule and all that stuff.

So you know, like like I'm just a little concern of the lack of awareness, but that doesn't mean he can't educate himself.

But just because you get caught in a situation doesn't mean that you just released a statement saying I'm sorry.

I didn't I just didn't know.

Um, you gotta do the work now for me.

I I think if you look at his history and started for me in the bubble with him standing and his ignorance into what the black lives matter movement means now this is more ignorance of him not knowing what the word meant and using it.

So it's almost like you got to the NBA has all these programs.

Just like now you got to start a program on Hey, this hurts people.

This is offensive.

This word you cannot use, and to me, he's just using words and going by what his His own Feelings and beliefs are not being educated by different communities, different cultures and different things that's happened in this world.

And so this is what is really need to be happening while they suspend him.

They should dock him with pay.

They should make him step away.

They did it with the Clippers owner.

You go away.

All right.

So they take him, go away and educate him, make him attend classes, make him do these all these things to educate himself.

So if he is allowed back with the team or any other team, he would be educated, informed he would know.

And And I totally agree with you about the generic apology.

You see these apologies so many times, it's almost like they have a template for these apologies.

And guys just following.

So this this No, no, no.