The Miami Heat suspended Meyers Leonard indefinitely after he used an anti-Semitic riot during a Twitch stream on Monday.
“The Miami Heat vehemently condemns the use of any form of hate speech,” the NBA team wrote in a Twitter statement Tuesday night. “The words used by Meyers Leonard were incorrect and we will not tolerate any hateful language from anyone associated with our franchise.”
In a statement apologizing for his actions posted on Instagram, Leonard said he was not aware of the significance of the failure.
“Although I did not know at the time what the word meant, my ignorance of history and how offensive it was to the Jewish community was absolutely no excuse, and I was just wrong,” he said. “I am now more aware of its meaning and committed to finding the right people who can help me educate this kind of hate and how we can fight it.”
The NBA also issued a statement saying it unequivocally condemned all forms of hate speech, a spokesman for ESPN said.
Twitch has suspended Leonard, the company says The edge. “We do not allow the use of hate insults on Twitch,” Twitch said in a statement. “The safety of our community is our top priority, and according to our guidelines, we reserve the right to set up any account for conduct that we believe is inappropriate, harmful or endangering our community.”
Other organizations also distanced themselves from Leonard. The gambling and sports organization FaZe Clan, in which Leonard invested, said on Tuesday night that he had broken the ties:
And sponsors Origin PC and Scuf Gaming, both owned by Corsair, also said is end their working relationships with Leonard.
Although stars who say inappropriate things are relatively new territory for NBA players flocking, it’s an unfortunate common problem for the biggest names on Twitch. Turner “Tfue” Tenney, for example, was suspended in 2018 for using a racial slur, though the platform did not take action when he said another grind in 2019. Fortnite pro Daniel “Dubs” Walsh was banned from Twitch and expelled from FaZe Clan after saying a racial uproar in February 2020. (He has since been reinstated.)
Other celebrities who tried their hand at streaming also had consequences for the hurtful language in the real world. NASCAR driver Kyle Larson was fired by his team in April for using the n-word during a sim racetrack, while musician Joel Zimmerman, who you might know as deadmau5, removed his Twitch channel in 2019 after he was suspended because he said homophobic insults.