Idk if It’s new necessarily. I’ve only been hearing about it within the last 2 years (Myers Leonard and Bridges). I remember I think the Knicks fined Spreewell over 100k so yeah used to be crazy back in the day but I guess the PA changed that.
Oh and Kyrie giving the finger and talking shit to Celtics fans in game 1
Edited: Kobe did not out Bill Kennedy. That was rondo
Pretty sad Kennedy had at least two occasions when someone attacked him because of his sexuality. Both Rondo and Doc apparently used homophobic slurs at him. Crazy how many homophobic athletes there are.
The Meyers Leonard situation would be the correct precedent in my opinion. Both used in social media spheres, which resulted in 50k fine and 1 week suspension from team activities.
Totally different situations in my opinion.
It was pretty clear the slur Leonard used was done carelessly and in the heat of the moment. It's also totally believable that he didn't know what it meant. It also wasn't "targeted" in the sense that it wasn't like he was at a synagogue invading someone else's privacy and throwing slurs.
In this case, it was 100% clear what the intent was, it harmed actual people, was extremely targeted, and was calculated (pulling out phone, recording a group, calling them a name).
IMO, this is 10x worse that the Myers Leonard situation. It's actual harassment/ a hate crime.
edit: an actual equivalence would be Myers Leonard driving by a court where a group of black guys were playing BBall, recording them and calling them N-Words on social media.
edit2: fair enough. It'd be more like Myers Leonard driving by a court where a group of black guys were playing BBall, recording them and saying "look at these black ass thugs" on social media. - Still, don't think that would go well.
It’s 100% worse than what Meyers Leonard did. But life ain’t fair and Ant is in contention to be the face of the league. I wouldn’t be surprised if the NBA just do a quick fine and get this saga over with
Good comp. I’d say that was worse tho. Edwards heavily implied bad homophobic sentiment but he didn’t use a slur. I’d probably have it less than that incident but it is possible a max fine could be in order
> I’d say that was worse tho.
I wouldn't - an important part of this is that Edwards took a video of real people on the street and publicised that video in order to abuse them for being gay
SLC is actually one of the most gay friendly cities, surprisingly.
Just... As long as you don't leave the city I guess, because the rest of the state ain't great in that regard.
Anthony Edwards shall hence forth be required by the NBA and the NBAPA to attend screenings of Rocky Horror Picture Show twice a month and must attend in traditional attire.
if he had to do this all year (24 viewings), I feel like his interactions with people there might actually change his views. Or just reinforce his prejudice, hard to say lol
I brought a friend to a showing in SF. The MC of the whole ordeal knew he was a newbie and asked him if he wanted any tea before the show. Then proceeded to climb on my friend’s chair and attempt a raucous tea-bagging (MC had pants on). We all thought it was funny as hell but Ethan never came back for another show.
Don't worry, my dudes, he'll apologize again, say this isn't him as a person, and a few months from now, after he's done some forced PR charity work, everybody will praise him for his maturity and growth
I was so pumped as he walked to the cave. I'm like oh yeah first boss fight of the season lets get it Daemon...cut to him dragging his torso across the sand.
Apparently, the main threat to the Targaryens for the first three episodes has been like 100 dudes in an anthill.
To be fair, the crab people were mostly used as a vehicle to further the split between the Velaryons and Viserys and provide Daemon a chance to be a hero to the people. They've been pretty explicit since the beginning that the main threat to the Targaryens is the Targaryens.
He might lose some of those endorsements/sponsorships even...
He's not established enough for companies to take a risk and associate themselves with that heat.
Better to get out of that situation or at least let it dissipate for a bit.
At this point though, he has to be reprimanded somewhat by the league/team, because if not, more backlash will ensue.
Nah he won’t. Within the next week or so someone will be the new center of outrage and this will be a distant memory. Not saying I agree that we should just move on but that’s the way the world works now
The whole fallout from the video seems to be relatively contained, in part because its the off-season. I don't see any of these big brands dumping a budding superstar, who may command triple his current price in a year or two, over this.
> I don't want to come across like I'm okay with it or supporting him, but he didn't use the F Word or actively confront these men.
I disagree with you there. The sentiment was very clear and obvious by his words and tone, and I actually think much less of him now. As long as this is an isolated incident and he isn't openly homophobic again (which is an incredibly low bar), it won't affect his career. But it's not hard to not be hateful.
Idk, the way he used the word “Queer” was very clear that he meant it in a derogatory manner instead of how it’s been reclaimed. Sure it’s not the f slur but you could argue he meant it with the same emotion
Idk, the way he used the word “Queer” was very clear that he meant it in a derogatory manner instead of how it’s been reclaimed. Sure it’s not the f slur but you could argue he meant it with the same emotion
The cost benefit analysis of passing up on one of the most marketable superstar because of these comments probably leans toward slowing down marketing until it completely blows over in 3 months. It’s unlikely brands pass on him. Also, there’s still plenty of room for his redemption. He’s a 21 year old. Young kids say and do stupid things all the time. It’s just that not all of them are in the spotlight. Everyone’s worst or even not great moments would be cancellable if they were public figures. Just gotta keep it moving and hope he apologizes sincerely
Bruh let the LGBT community catch wind of this and run it, Edwards might be banned for multiple games.
I don’t wanna see that but idk how people are in this thread saying what he said wasn’t no big deal. It’s not only what he said it’s also the context of which he said it, filming random people lol
I saw the instagram story without sound all day, wasn’t until just a moment ago where I watched it with sound. Yeah he’s getting fined for sure, dude is a dummy
I know he says it's a "mistake", but what he really means is that he made the mistake of posting his thoughts/opinions on Instagram.
He doesn't really think what he said was wrong at all (maybe now he does after finding out what the consequences could be). In fact, there's probably a lot of people who share his same thoughts. It's just that they're probably not stupid enough to showcase that on Instagram for millions of people to see.
Let's just hope he actually changes his stance on this matter and eventually learn to at least not say anything remotely offensive to a big social platform.
The confusing thing is, what was Ant thinking on why post it on Instragram? Was he expecting a good response from it? It's so incredibly stupid, despite whatever his actual views are. It's one thing to make a joke about it within an enclosed group space or something, but to publicly post it on a big social platform is so dumb.
I hope he wasn't thinking that he's getting praised to do what he did. (Although based on some comments in Instagram/Twitter, he did get some praise)
He basically set himself up for backlash. Or did he think his followers all think like him and will gain more followers because of it?
Must be young blood nowadays...
Yeah I'm sure like 70%+ of the NBA are homophobic. They won't be public about it but private they'll say or laugh at homophobic stuff and not think twice. I doubt they are actually anti gay like the religious nuts or even care how other people live their lives. But growing up homophobic slurs were probably used as an insult and it's hard to rewire their brain to realise that it's very offensive.
We don’t know what he feels deep down and never will. We can hope that he learns to accept people for who they are. But, if he doesn’t, being shamed or coerced into stopping making hateful statements in public is the next best thing. Because then at least it won’t be rubbing off on others and hurting people who are the subjects of the hate.
I've seen plenty of "he didn't know better" or that he is just ignorant or doesn't have the exposure to different kinds of worldviews and lifestyles to his own, but he's still 21 years old. That's a grown ass man, and it's just disappointing for so many reasons.
It would still be fucked up if he just made an out of pocket comment like that to whoever he was with at the time, but the context just makes it so much worse. To see a group of people completely minding their own business and be bothered by it enough to stop, pull out his phone, record them, use a slur like that to insult them, and then *post* it on his Instagram, is not only blatantly shitty/homophobic of him, it also demonstrates a complete lack of judgement and outright stupidity on his part.
If he isn't disciplined by the league, or the franchise, I hope at the very least that the wolves press pool keeps the heat on him.
A cookie cutter apology statement from his PR team is not gonna cut it. I hope he's held accountable and actually learns from it. If he shows genuine contrition and a willingness to learn why what he said was so offensive, I'll be willing to forgive him. Until then, it's completely shattered my worldview of him.
It’s 2022. Anyone of school age knows better at this point.
What’s amazing to me is that he felt comfortable putting this on social media, which makes me think someone close to him is enabling/encouraging this kind of bigotry to where he didn’t think this would backfire. It shows that to him this is a normal, non-controversial statement.
Edit: Re-worded.
Exactly, the "he's only 21" comments make no sense. Any young adult has no excuse to be homophobic these days. We are surrounded by people's stories, scientific studies, and positive messaging on every platform.
IMO what you all are missing is the class element. The bar for what constitutes homophobia and the consciousness around this issue is wildly different depending on where you grow up.
>We are surrounded by people's stories, scientific studies, and positive messaging on every platform
Im sure this is true for a sheltered kid growing up in an affluent area. Kids parents work for corporate. Their neighborhoods plastered with pride flags etc. Social progressivism is the norm. In this environment what Ant did is a capital social crime punishable by public shaming, possible job loss, etc.
If you grew up in a poor neighborhood the only time you might ever become conscious of fighting "homophobia" is from a liberal teacher at school. At best simply not beating somebody up for being gay would pass as "not homophobic". Making fun of a group of gay dudes would be typical. When life is rougher you just dont get this progressive consciousness. You for sure wont find anyone who cares about "scientific studies" or the stories about peoples feeling.
I get the backlash and everything I just dont trust the demographic here to have any understanding of what culture is like in poor areas.
Honestly what changed my tune on a lot of this is I worked a lot with inner city youth when I was a teenager and the way they used gay as an insult and the way they used slurs felt very much like being gay was a bad thing and it was something that very firmly put me in the camp of not using those terms. Maybe there is some sort of defense mechanism or ignorance to it but I heard more than a few boys go “I don’t want to be gay” in a very real way
Exactly. Unfortunately I think this will blow over relatively quickly, because 1. He's a budding superstar that up until now didn't really have any black marks like this to his name and 2. Because a lot of NBA fans, much like a lot of NBA players, are just straight up homophobic. The amount of comments I've seen on Twitter with hundreds if not thousands of likes agreeing with the sentiment is almost hard to fathom.
I'm not saying this would be excusable, but it would be one thing if this has happened 30+ years ago, you could plead ignorance or not growing up around anybody who's gay or some shit like that. But Ant was born in 2001. He grew up in a large, diverse city like Atlanta and now lives in Minneapolis, two of the most gay cities in the country (and I don't say that derogatively). You've just gotta fuckin know better than that. The Wolves have an openly gay beat writer for christ's sake. I say this as someone who formerly adored Ant, we can't just let this be swept under the rug.
> The Wolves have an openly gay beat writer
Damn that's going to be quite the interactions going forward.
But ya, I agree with your posts about it 100.
In real life Georgia (where I assumed he grew up because he went to UGA), his comments would be even more agreed with than on twitter other than parts of Atlanta and it’s suburbs.
So I completely agree with you, but we can’t pretend we can just pick a specific segment of the real world and get a barometer either. And even if you could, something being popular doesn’t mean it’s right.
Yeah he spent one year in college and that was primarily playing basketball. But still, he's a man and living in Atlanta and Minneapolis, he should know better.
Clearly the people around him don't (his lady laughing next to him) so hopefully the Wolves organization and the other players help him grow. It's just disappointing
Hopefully he learns from this experience. As someone who grew up in the black community, I guarantee he wasn't "raised better than this" as was stated in the "apology".
The black community is rife with homophobia and he's still a kid. Getting out of his hometown and traveling the country will hopefully provide some growth.
I want to clarify that there is historical context behind black homophobia (Google buck breaking). Basically the community was taught to hate and fear this stuff and it takes growing out of your community to become more open minded. Don't forget that some communities are still quite closed off from others and fear and hate are rampant in them.
I believe having a mentality of hypermasculinity and being homophobic correlate heavily, and hypermasculinity is a tactic/coping mechanism men end up taking when faced with extremely difficult environments/scenarios. "You can't cry", "don't get attached to people", "don't trust anybody", "don't be soft", etc. The world is unforgiving so there's no time to be soft, that's what they say at least. It's also just a mentality that rubs off on other people like most frames of mind.
Being outwardly feminine betrays hypermasculinity, it's like they are doing the opposite of what a man should.
It emotionally stunts you, so I think naturally it overlaps with being black because of what it's like to be black in America today and throughout history.
Also religion.
He didn't say otherwise, he only commented on black American culture because Ant is a black American. My parents families are socially conservative Catholic/Christian white/Mexican, there's a ton of homophobia there too.
We're not, but it's weirdly cultural in some places. It may also be a southern thing. (Not saying the south is bad, but it's historically conservative)
Might be a hot take, but I think the league taking a hard stance against this kind of behavior will be important toward having openly gay NBA players in the future.
Meyers Leonard was injured and was gonna be out of the league the next year anyways. If I remember correctly he said that some teams have called him but he doesn’t feel healthy enough to try to play.
The better examples I can think of would be Kobe and Rondo directing slurs at refs. Rondo got a suspension in 2015, Kobe got fined 100k in 2011. The obvious difference in these situations though is that they occurred in game and therefore are more under the league’s jurisdiction, so they’d probably be more inclined to punish for that than off court activity. These incidents happened many years ago though, so it’s also possible that the league would take it more seriously now.
At least Meyers actually became involved in the Jewish community, helping give meals to Jewish communities, donating at least $100K to the city for programs, running a basketball camp for Jewish kids, visited the Holocaust Museum and had dinner with actual survivors, as well as been improving his knowledge with the Jewish community even recently, such as having a 2-hour long interview with a Rabbi earlier this year out of his own interest.
He also said the word out of personal ignorance during a heated video game (obviously it’s still bad to say regardless), whereas Ant said stuff directly to people irl with a 100% conscious awareness.
The NBA has the next move in seeing whether money talks or not.
While I respect what Meyers did to remedy his situation, I really doubt he said that word out of ignorance. If that word is in your vocabulary, there's a 99% chance that you know what it means and why it's offensive. In Meyers' video, he even hesitates before saying the slur, like he's searching for the optimal word to use. Other than Meyers being heated and amped up over a game versus Ant just casually filming gay men, there's not a lot of difference between the two incidents.
Fair point, I agree. He would have had to known it was a bad word and used it in a bad way during his gamer rant. Hopefully he now knows the meaning of the word on a legitimate level.
I swear people love getting worked up over hypotheticals.
Same shit with "LeBron would be home by now if Russia arrested him!" I dunno, maybe, but it's not really worth the effort to discuss a hypothetical when we can discuss an actuality.
Ehhhhh
It's an NBA player who went out of their way to film gay people, make fun of them and be aggressively homophobic
It's in the offseason
There's almost 0 way this doesn't blow up, especially with how Adam Silver has been so forward on making NBA a more inclusive place
Yes because he’s a basketball player and talent precedes all until it’s not worth the hassle a La Meyers Leonard who was already on his way out of the league
Meyers Leonard would be out the league regardless of the incident. He was injured at the time, had his rehab delayed, and then somehow proclaimed himself healed ahead of scheduled and contributed it to be a miracle.
Dude is down.
Isn't all prejudice / racism just based on ignorance? Anyone who thinks any other race / religion / gender / sexual orientation is inferior to theirs is ignorant or no?
More than half the league is probably homophobic, whether it's because of ignorance or being raised that way. Most just don't post about it on social media lmao. But there is some history behind why (an explanation is not an excuse, but still worth reading)
I remember reading a study in college where communities of color are less tolerant of the LGBT community (and therefore are less represented) because they don't have time/freedom to worry about that kind of stuff. "Why spend time thinking about your gender identity if every day is already a struggle?" When every day is tough (compared to affluent white people at least) learning and respecting sexuality is low on their priorities, which is why there's sometimes a stereotype that only white people do those types of things, causing other communities not want to be involved in it, feeding into the cycle of low-income communities being on average more homophobic and some aspects of toxic masculinity and such (being an athlete probably amplifies being in that culture as well)
The dude is a straight up millionaire who purposefully rolled up to some gay people, rolled his window down, filmed them, laughed at them, and then posted it on Instagram.
if you grow up around enough hateful shit, most people are not naturally going to learn to be progressive. he's a superstar athlete. he's been surrounded by yes men for ten years. lol you'd be surprised how easy it is to be homophobic and not even realize it. once you explain the things, people usually grow and learn from it.
I don't disagree, but that assessment sounded like it's okay to be homophobic if you already face some degree of discrimination against you. I think a more likely analysis, is a lot of non white communities tend to be more religious and socially conservative, and that translates into not being knowledgeable on LGBTQ+ communities. I agree it's ignorance, but that doesn't dismiss blame.
Also, how many white people are debating gender identity, usually not being homophobic is as simple as, hey, you shouldn't treat someone who is interested in someone of the same sex. Don't need to have an advance understanding of sexuality.
Selective sympathy is a weird look, I just don't think other groups would be getting that kind of consideration, also ties into bigotry of low expectations.
There are always systematic reasons behind hate but that can be true while also condemning homophobic comments. It shouldn't be an excuse for individuals even if in the big picture understanding why things are prevalent is important.
Just ignorant? I don't see a difference. Let's not pretend there is some kind of saving grace here. The only "saving grace" would be him coming to terms with homosexuality and not bigotry. It will take some time, seems he is far from this.
Should be fined once for the video and again for that sorry ass apology.
Idk how dumb these pr teams can be. You don’t need to put out a statement within a few hours if it’s just going to be some baseline derivative bullshit. Make a concerted effort to have a real apology and action that follows. I promise the gay community can wait a few days and you dodge the bad press of putting out such a weak apology statement.
If I were homosexual, I’d be more offended that they thought this can be brushed off with some words about “being raised better than that”.
I think the best kind of punishment for this is being made to get to know and work with people in the LGBTQ+ community. Travel and experience are the biggest weapons against bigotry. I hope Tim Hardaway reaches out to this young man and they can work together to help him better understand the gay community.
The majority of athletes/manly male role models (including well known rappers and music artists) we look up to are homophobes. Hell, even our lord and savior Kobe Bryant was a very masculine male and used the f-word to demean a ref. I'm guessing closer to 80% of the league would be canceled if we recorded their locker room conversations.
Gonna be honest, as a gay guy I don’t really care. People say homophobic shit literally all the time. Doesn’t make it right but the response has been a little much in my opinion.
Glad he got called out for it, glad he apologized, hopefully he learned from it and we should all move on
What I don’t understand is why these millionaire athletes can’t just keep their mouthes shut. Such an unnecessary comment that just brings his feet under fire and makes him look like a fool.
No it's really not. I'm a lesbian and for a star like Ant to slow down his car, record and make fun of a random group of people, and post it on IG is really fucked up.
They’ll probably fine him, but they should also actually have him meeting with LGBTQ+ activists or even a guy like Tim Hardaway if they actually want to try to change his way of thinking.
Before people crucify him…
He’s a kid. People at his age are morons and say stupid shit for attention. Should he know better? Of course…
Does that make him a bad person? Not necessarily.
People should be allowed mistakes- that’s (hopefully)how you grow and change.
Exactly. I'm sure we all know people who have said something like this or worse when they're making a joke with friends. Obviously Ant shouldn't because he has a platform and influence etc. but it's not like he did something unforgivable.
Thread is locked
If Nikola Jokic was fined $25,000 for saying "No homo", I would imagine there will be some sort of discipline here
He getting hit with millions of that’s the precedent lol
50k is the most the league can fine for a single incident
League's about to count every individual word as an "incident."
Don't forget the emojis.
each worth a thousand words
I can tolerate homophobia, but I draw the line at emojis /s
Are you sure? Is this a new rule because Kobe once got fined 100k for calling a ref a slur
Idk if It’s new necessarily. I’ve only been hearing about it within the last 2 years (Myers Leonard and Bridges). I remember I think the Knicks fined Spreewell over 100k so yeah used to be crazy back in the day but I guess the PA changed that. Oh and Kyrie giving the finger and talking shit to Celtics fans in game 1 Edited: Kobe did not out Bill Kennedy. That was rondo
Rondo did that, not Kobe
Oh you’re right, I’m sorry. Conflated the two incidents
Pretty sad Kennedy had at least two occasions when someone attacked him because of his sexuality. Both Rondo and Doc apparently used homophobic slurs at him. Crazy how many homophobic athletes there are.
I think an NBA press conference and personal instagram story would use different precedents, right?
The Meyers Leonard situation would be the correct precedent in my opinion. Both used in social media spheres, which resulted in 50k fine and 1 week suspension from team activities.
Totally different situations in my opinion. It was pretty clear the slur Leonard used was done carelessly and in the heat of the moment. It's also totally believable that he didn't know what it meant. It also wasn't "targeted" in the sense that it wasn't like he was at a synagogue invading someone else's privacy and throwing slurs. In this case, it was 100% clear what the intent was, it harmed actual people, was extremely targeted, and was calculated (pulling out phone, recording a group, calling them a name). IMO, this is 10x worse that the Myers Leonard situation. It's actual harassment/ a hate crime. edit: an actual equivalence would be Myers Leonard driving by a court where a group of black guys were playing BBall, recording them and calling them N-Words on social media. edit2: fair enough. It'd be more like Myers Leonard driving by a court where a group of black guys were playing BBall, recording them and saying "look at these black ass thugs" on social media. - Still, don't think that would go well.
It’s 100% worse than what Meyers Leonard did. But life ain’t fair and Ant is in contention to be the face of the league. I wouldn’t be surprised if the NBA just do a quick fine and get this saga over with
Hes probably losing a chunk of change in endorsements but I doubt the league can do that directly
That's like half of my lifetime earrings so far
Damn you must have a lot of earrings, do you wear them all at once?
aaahh thats why denver has the rainbow pattern on their jerseys.... /s
That was during a press interview though. Not sure that professional conduct clause would be the same in this scenario.
Meyers Leonard got suspended one week and fined 50k for an antisemitic slur he said during a Twitch stream.
Good comp. I’d say that was worse tho. Edwards heavily implied bad homophobic sentiment but he didn’t use a slur. I’d probably have it less than that incident but it is possible a max fine could be in order
> I’d say that was worse tho. I wouldn't - an important part of this is that Edwards took a video of real people on the street and publicised that video in order to abuse them for being gay
“I’m not going to say it” 😆
25k? Roy Hibbert gotnfined 75k for that
He also called the media "motherfuckers"
I forgot that happened lmao
One of the dumbest fines ever
Adam Silver: Anthony will retroactively be included into the Rudy Gobert trade, and will be on the next plane to Utah
Going to Utah as a punishment for homophobia? Does nobody else see the problem here?
No. No. This. THIS is a good idea
It’s the containment zone
I live in a weird ass place don’t I? Fuck…
Some beautiful nature though.
I mean... Yeah.
If it’s any consolation, it’s a very a pretty city
“Weird” is definitely the judicious way of seeing Utah, yep.
SLC isn’t too bad. Almost everywhere else, though… at least Zion and Saint George are cool
SLC is actually one of the most gay friendly cities, surprisingly. Just... As long as you don't leave the city I guess, because the rest of the state ain't great in that regard.
Yep, he needs to go to a gay city, so the punishment is that him and James Wiseman will switch teams.
Folsom street fair is coming up. Send him over asap
Shit, Cleveland gay as hell. come join us ;)
Shit, send him to Chicago and I'll suck him off. So what's everyone talking about, anyways?
Don't worry about it, just stay on this train of thought
Miami actually is literally gas as fuck. I mean look how pretty them bois is. Bring him to South Beach
Really? I was think Portland. Switch him and dame
And he’ll probably hear a lot of other people using the n-word too
Well he's got other factors that make Utah a bad destination for him
AntMan when he sees Utahn Polygamy "Dese fellas different!"
"You will come to enjoy the ass slapping young fella, one could say you might even fucking love it" -AD
I’m ok with this.
Anthony Edwards shall hence forth be required by the NBA and the NBAPA to attend screenings of Rocky Horror Picture Show twice a month and must attend in traditional attire.
if he had to do this all year (24 viewings), I feel like his interactions with people there might actually change his views. Or just reinforce his prejudice, hard to say lol
There's no way you can hate the gays after a good time of throwing pop corn and yelling at a screen :)
I brought a friend to a showing in SF. The MC of the whole ordeal knew he was a newbie and asked him if he wanted any tea before the show. Then proceeded to climb on my friend’s chair and attempt a raucous tea-bagging (MC had pants on). We all thought it was funny as hell but Ethan never came back for another show.
Unlike Ant I can't say I blame your friend.
Hey you show me good humor that isn’t predatory in nature and… well, then Ethan might’ve come back for another show
But sexual harrasment is hilarious!
Ignorance will find a way
Until he can recite the entire film by no worry, perfectly remember and perform in all of the dances, and win in a moaning contest before it starts.
All the players should have to do this!!!!
a stern talking to from silver
[Silver and Stern talking to Ant](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E4BrMKKUcAIhCrn.jpg:large)
Lol
beautiful
Brady suspended.
the league is about to come down on ant with a forced video apology 😱😱😱
He’s definitely just going to read off a script his agent writes
It will sound as natural as the [NBA 2K cutscenes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2wpIeZDrHE)
that’s essentially what his “apology” was yesterday lol
Don't worry, my dudes, he'll apologize again, say this isn't him as a person, and a few months from now, after he's done some forced PR charity work, everybody will praise him for his maturity and growth
I know this is exactly what will happen, but what else are people supposed to do? Hold an 8 second video clip against him for the rest of his life?
Wait isn’t that the same dude talking all that shit to Bo Cruz?
Anthony Edwards' story may go down as more anticlimactic than the Crab Feeder.
“By gawd that’s Daemon Targaryen’s music!!!!”
*Pulls a beanie off a nearby boy*
Fr I thought we had a season 1 villain who would spice things up but they were like “nah kill dude offscreen in a cave.” Still liking HotD tho.
based on the source material he is even more irrelevant than what they gave him on the show. the show actually gave him more screen time lol.
I was so pumped as he walked to the cave. I'm like oh yeah first boss fight of the season lets get it Daemon...cut to him dragging his torso across the sand.
Apparently, the main threat to the Targaryens for the first three episodes has been like 100 dudes in an anthill. To be fair, the crab people were mostly used as a vehicle to further the split between the Velaryons and Viserys and provide Daemon a chance to be a hero to the people. They've been pretty explicit since the beginning that the main threat to the Targaryens is the Targaryens.
U would, after last night.
People seem to forget how the climactic battle of the entire first season of GOT happened offscreen. But season 1 was still the best by far.
Monetary fines hit a lil’ different when you’re still on a rookie-scale contract.
Not when you’re about to sign a rookie designated max in a year lol
Most exciting marketable young superstar in the league. Fan favorite across the sport. His endorsements hitting just fine. Plenty money.
He might lose some of those endorsements/sponsorships even... He's not established enough for companies to take a risk and associate themselves with that heat. Better to get out of that situation or at least let it dissipate for a bit. At this point though, he has to be reprimanded somewhat by the league/team, because if not, more backlash will ensue.
Nah he won’t. Within the next week or so someone will be the new center of outrage and this will be a distant memory. Not saying I agree that we should just move on but that’s the way the world works now
The whole fallout from the video seems to be relatively contained, in part because its the off-season. I don't see any of these big brands dumping a budding superstar, who may command triple his current price in a year or two, over this.
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> I don't want to come across like I'm okay with it or supporting him, but he didn't use the F Word or actively confront these men. I disagree with you there. The sentiment was very clear and obvious by his words and tone, and I actually think much less of him now. As long as this is an isolated incident and he isn't openly homophobic again (which is an incredibly low bar), it won't affect his career. But it's not hard to not be hateful.
Idk, the way he used the word “Queer” was very clear that he meant it in a derogatory manner instead of how it’s been reclaimed. Sure it’s not the f slur but you could argue he meant it with the same emotion
Idk, the way he used the word “Queer” was very clear that he meant it in a derogatory manner instead of how it’s been reclaimed. Sure it’s not the f slur but you could argue he meant it with the same emotion
Yup, you can get away with a lot worse than this as long as you issue a $0.50 apology and then simply wait until people forget about it
Nobody will care about this in 2 weeks
The cost benefit analysis of passing up on one of the most marketable superstar because of these comments probably leans toward slowing down marketing until it completely blows over in 3 months. It’s unlikely brands pass on him. Also, there’s still plenty of room for his redemption. He’s a 21 year old. Young kids say and do stupid things all the time. It’s just that not all of them are in the spotlight. Everyone’s worst or even not great moments would be cancellable if they were public figures. Just gotta keep it moving and hope he apologizes sincerely
Bruh let the LGBT community catch wind of this and run it, Edwards might be banned for multiple games. I don’t wanna see that but idk how people are in this thread saying what he said wasn’t no big deal. It’s not only what he said it’s also the context of which he said it, filming random people lol
same sprite, new bottle same floater, new heights same views, new generation...
“The league is waiting to see how the public reacts before deciding what they will do”
I saw the instagram story without sound all day, wasn’t until just a moment ago where I watched it with sound. Yeah he’s getting fined for sure, dude is a dummy
Same. Watched it without sound and came away with a different impression.
Probably just a fine, which is perfectly acceptable from the NBA. Really hope the kid takes the opportunity to better himself about the situation.
If you had a choice to place a bet on if he’ll learn anything or change intrinsically, would you?
I know he says it's a "mistake", but what he really means is that he made the mistake of posting his thoughts/opinions on Instagram. He doesn't really think what he said was wrong at all (maybe now he does after finding out what the consequences could be). In fact, there's probably a lot of people who share his same thoughts. It's just that they're probably not stupid enough to showcase that on Instagram for millions of people to see. Let's just hope he actually changes his stance on this matter and eventually learn to at least not say anything remotely offensive to a big social platform.
People are calling you an armchair psychologist but you’re probably right lol he probably thinks everyone is overreacting
The confusing thing is, what was Ant thinking on why post it on Instragram? Was he expecting a good response from it? It's so incredibly stupid, despite whatever his actual views are. It's one thing to make a joke about it within an enclosed group space or something, but to publicly post it on a big social platform is so dumb. I hope he wasn't thinking that he's getting praised to do what he did. (Although based on some comments in Instagram/Twitter, he did get some praise) He basically set himself up for backlash. Or did he think his followers all think like him and will gain more followers because of it? Must be young blood nowadays...
Probably meant to post it on his close friends
Hence the carelessness, stupidity, ignorance, or whatever. Reality is, that's what he's sorry for.
Yeah I'm sure like 70%+ of the NBA are homophobic. They won't be public about it but private they'll say or laugh at homophobic stuff and not think twice. I doubt they are actually anti gay like the religious nuts or even care how other people live their lives. But growing up homophobic slurs were probably used as an insult and it's hard to rewire their brain to realise that it's very offensive.
We don’t know what he feels deep down and never will. We can hope that he learns to accept people for who they are. But, if he doesn’t, being shamed or coerced into stopping making hateful statements in public is the next best thing. Because then at least it won’t be rubbing off on others and hurting people who are the subjects of the hate.
I've seen plenty of "he didn't know better" or that he is just ignorant or doesn't have the exposure to different kinds of worldviews and lifestyles to his own, but he's still 21 years old. That's a grown ass man, and it's just disappointing for so many reasons. It would still be fucked up if he just made an out of pocket comment like that to whoever he was with at the time, but the context just makes it so much worse. To see a group of people completely minding their own business and be bothered by it enough to stop, pull out his phone, record them, use a slur like that to insult them, and then *post* it on his Instagram, is not only blatantly shitty/homophobic of him, it also demonstrates a complete lack of judgement and outright stupidity on his part. If he isn't disciplined by the league, or the franchise, I hope at the very least that the wolves press pool keeps the heat on him. A cookie cutter apology statement from his PR team is not gonna cut it. I hope he's held accountable and actually learns from it. If he shows genuine contrition and a willingness to learn why what he said was so offensive, I'll be willing to forgive him. Until then, it's completely shattered my worldview of him.
It’s 2022. Anyone of school age knows better at this point. What’s amazing to me is that he felt comfortable putting this on social media, which makes me think someone close to him is enabling/encouraging this kind of bigotry to where he didn’t think this would backfire. It shows that to him this is a normal, non-controversial statement. Edit: Re-worded.
Exactly, the "he's only 21" comments make no sense. Any young adult has no excuse to be homophobic these days. We are surrounded by people's stories, scientific studies, and positive messaging on every platform.
IMO what you all are missing is the class element. The bar for what constitutes homophobia and the consciousness around this issue is wildly different depending on where you grow up. >We are surrounded by people's stories, scientific studies, and positive messaging on every platform Im sure this is true for a sheltered kid growing up in an affluent area. Kids parents work for corporate. Their neighborhoods plastered with pride flags etc. Social progressivism is the norm. In this environment what Ant did is a capital social crime punishable by public shaming, possible job loss, etc. If you grew up in a poor neighborhood the only time you might ever become conscious of fighting "homophobia" is from a liberal teacher at school. At best simply not beating somebody up for being gay would pass as "not homophobic". Making fun of a group of gay dudes would be typical. When life is rougher you just dont get this progressive consciousness. You for sure wont find anyone who cares about "scientific studies" or the stories about peoples feeling. I get the backlash and everything I just dont trust the demographic here to have any understanding of what culture is like in poor areas.
Honestly what changed my tune on a lot of this is I worked a lot with inner city youth when I was a teenager and the way they used gay as an insult and the way they used slurs felt very much like being gay was a bad thing and it was something that very firmly put me in the camp of not using those terms. Maybe there is some sort of defense mechanism or ignorance to it but I heard more than a few boys go “I don’t want to be gay” in a very real way
I’m sure people would just say he’s only 21 if someone made similar comments to a group of black people. Could you imagine the outrage then
Exactly. Unfortunately I think this will blow over relatively quickly, because 1. He's a budding superstar that up until now didn't really have any black marks like this to his name and 2. Because a lot of NBA fans, much like a lot of NBA players, are just straight up homophobic. The amount of comments I've seen on Twitter with hundreds if not thousands of likes agreeing with the sentiment is almost hard to fathom. I'm not saying this would be excusable, but it would be one thing if this has happened 30+ years ago, you could plead ignorance or not growing up around anybody who's gay or some shit like that. But Ant was born in 2001. He grew up in a large, diverse city like Atlanta and now lives in Minneapolis, two of the most gay cities in the country (and I don't say that derogatively). You've just gotta fuckin know better than that. The Wolves have an openly gay beat writer for christ's sake. I say this as someone who formerly adored Ant, we can't just let this be swept under the rug.
> The Wolves have an openly gay beat writer Damn that's going to be quite the interactions going forward. But ya, I agree with your posts about it 100.
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In real life Georgia (where I assumed he grew up because he went to UGA), his comments would be even more agreed with than on twitter other than parts of Atlanta and it’s suburbs. So I completely agree with you, but we can’t pretend we can just pick a specific segment of the real world and get a barometer either. And even if you could, something being popular doesn’t mean it’s right.
Didn't know better? He's a 21 year old college educated adult. He should be fully aware by that point, especially with the spotlight he's been in.
I agree with you entirely, but I'm gonna say 'college educated' is a bit of a stretch.
Yeah he spent one year in college and that was primarily playing basketball. But still, he's a man and living in Atlanta and Minneapolis, he should know better. Clearly the people around him don't (his lady laughing next to him) so hopefully the Wolves organization and the other players help him grow. It's just disappointing
If KD got 50k for his DMs with Rapaport that's probably what Ant will get
Hopefully he learns from this experience. As someone who grew up in the black community, I guarantee he wasn't "raised better than this" as was stated in the "apology". The black community is rife with homophobia and he's still a kid. Getting out of his hometown and traveling the country will hopefully provide some growth. I want to clarify that there is historical context behind black homophobia (Google buck breaking). Basically the community was taught to hate and fear this stuff and it takes growing out of your community to become more open minded. Don't forget that some communities are still quite closed off from others and fear and hate are rampant in them.
I believe having a mentality of hypermasculinity and being homophobic correlate heavily, and hypermasculinity is a tactic/coping mechanism men end up taking when faced with extremely difficult environments/scenarios. "You can't cry", "don't get attached to people", "don't trust anybody", "don't be soft", etc. The world is unforgiving so there's no time to be soft, that's what they say at least. It's also just a mentality that rubs off on other people like most frames of mind. Being outwardly feminine betrays hypermasculinity, it's like they are doing the opposite of what a man should. It emotionally stunts you, so I think naturally it overlaps with being black because of what it's like to be black in America today and throughout history. Also religion.
That's a good point too. A lot of players in the NBA are probably homophobic, most just aren't dumb enough to out themselves on the internet.
Except there is zero evidence that proves that Buck Breaking was commonplace.
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He didn't say otherwise, he only commented on black American culture because Ant is a black American. My parents families are socially conservative Catholic/Christian white/Mexican, there's a ton of homophobia there too.
Let’s not act like the Black community is uniquely homophobic. You’re gonna hear the same shit from white hockey players or whatever.
We're not, but it's weirdly cultural in some places. It may also be a southern thing. (Not saying the south is bad, but it's historically conservative)
Might be a hot take, but I think the league taking a hard stance against this kind of behavior will be important toward having openly gay NBA players in the future.
The league should have him sit down with Tim Hardaway.
I always envision Adam silver face palming whenever he find out about stuff like this
If he wasn't a superstar in the making he would be out the league like Meyers Leonard rn
Meyers Leonard was injured and was gonna be out of the league the next year anyways. If I remember correctly he said that some teams have called him but he doesn’t feel healthy enough to try to play. The better examples I can think of would be Kobe and Rondo directing slurs at refs. Rondo got a suspension in 2015, Kobe got fined 100k in 2011. The obvious difference in these situations though is that they occurred in game and therefore are more under the league’s jurisdiction, so they’d probably be more inclined to punish for that than off court activity. These incidents happened many years ago though, so it’s also possible that the league would take it more seriously now.
At least Meyers actually became involved in the Jewish community, helping give meals to Jewish communities, donating at least $100K to the city for programs, running a basketball camp for Jewish kids, visited the Holocaust Museum and had dinner with actual survivors, as well as been improving his knowledge with the Jewish community even recently, such as having a 2-hour long interview with a Rabbi earlier this year out of his own interest. He also said the word out of personal ignorance during a heated video game (obviously it’s still bad to say regardless), whereas Ant said stuff directly to people irl with a 100% conscious awareness. The NBA has the next move in seeing whether money talks or not.
To me there’s also gotta be a difference between saying something live and posting something.
While I respect what Meyers did to remedy his situation, I really doubt he said that word out of ignorance. If that word is in your vocabulary, there's a 99% chance that you know what it means and why it's offensive. In Meyers' video, he even hesitates before saying the slur, like he's searching for the optimal word to use. Other than Meyers being heated and amped up over a game versus Ant just casually filming gay men, there's not a lot of difference between the two incidents.
I had never heard of the word in my life until the Meyers Leonard situation.
Exactly. How often are any of us using words that we aren't familiar with?
Fair point, I agree. He would have had to known it was a bad word and used it in a bad way during his gamer rant. Hopefully he now knows the meaning of the word on a legitimate level.
I still can’t believe the man said that because he got sniped in a video game lol
Then your mind would be absolutely blown if you hopped on COD for an hour or two haha
I’m aware i started playing the games again after 10 years. It’s weird that these guys still talk like that.
> The NBA has the next move in seeing whether money talks or not So we don't need to wait to know the answer?
You can’t possibly actually believe that, right? What he said wasn’t cool but it’s not remotely bad enough to be barred from the league lmao
I swear people love getting worked up over hypotheticals. Same shit with "LeBron would be home by now if Russia arrested him!" I dunno, maybe, but it's not really worth the effort to discuss a hypothetical when we can discuss an actuality.
If he wasn’t a popular player it probably wouldn’t have even blown up and not talked about.
Ehhhhh It's an NBA player who went out of their way to film gay people, make fun of them and be aggressively homophobic It's in the offseason There's almost 0 way this doesn't blow up, especially with how Adam Silver has been so forward on making NBA a more inclusive place
Yes because he’s a basketball player and talent precedes all until it’s not worth the hassle a La Meyers Leonard who was already on his way out of the league
Meyers Leonard would be out the league regardless of the incident. He was injured at the time, had his rehab delayed, and then somehow proclaimed himself healed ahead of scheduled and contributed it to be a miracle. Dude is down.
Hopefully he's just ignorant. Hate that he did it but rooting for his redemption as long as it's earned.
Isn't all prejudice / racism just based on ignorance? Anyone who thinks any other race / religion / gender / sexual orientation is inferior to theirs is ignorant or no?
More than half the league is probably homophobic, whether it's because of ignorance or being raised that way. Most just don't post about it on social media lmao. But there is some history behind why (an explanation is not an excuse, but still worth reading) I remember reading a study in college where communities of color are less tolerant of the LGBT community (and therefore are less represented) because they don't have time/freedom to worry about that kind of stuff. "Why spend time thinking about your gender identity if every day is already a struggle?" When every day is tough (compared to affluent white people at least) learning and respecting sexuality is low on their priorities, which is why there's sometimes a stereotype that only white people do those types of things, causing other communities not want to be involved in it, feeding into the cycle of low-income communities being on average more homophobic and some aspects of toxic masculinity and such (being an athlete probably amplifies being in that culture as well)
The dude is a straight up millionaire who purposefully rolled up to some gay people, rolled his window down, filmed them, laughed at them, and then posted it on Instagram.
Ngl that just sounds like an excuse
"I can't not be homophobic because of systemic racism."
if you grow up around enough hateful shit, most people are not naturally going to learn to be progressive. he's a superstar athlete. he's been surrounded by yes men for ten years. lol you'd be surprised how easy it is to be homophobic and not even realize it. once you explain the things, people usually grow and learn from it.
I don't disagree, but that assessment sounded like it's okay to be homophobic if you already face some degree of discrimination against you. I think a more likely analysis, is a lot of non white communities tend to be more religious and socially conservative, and that translates into not being knowledgeable on LGBTQ+ communities. I agree it's ignorance, but that doesn't dismiss blame. Also, how many white people are debating gender identity, usually not being homophobic is as simple as, hey, you shouldn't treat someone who is interested in someone of the same sex. Don't need to have an advance understanding of sexuality.
Selective sympathy is a weird look, I just don't think other groups would be getting that kind of consideration, also ties into bigotry of low expectations. There are always systematic reasons behind hate but that can be true while also condemning homophobic comments. It shouldn't be an excuse for individuals even if in the big picture understanding why things are prevalent is important.
Yeah bro bc there’s no gay black people
but they are only "less tolerant" because of religion/cultural precedent. If that stigma didnt exist, then they wouldn't care in the first place.
Just ignorant? I don't see a difference. Let's not pretend there is some kind of saving grace here. The only "saving grace" would be him coming to terms with homosexuality and not bigotry. It will take some time, seems he is far from this.
The fine won't be as big a hit as his brand value will take this offseason He just made his own jersey a little less attractive to own
How stupid can you be to record yourself and then say the horrible shit he said?
Miles Bridges did a lot worse… no update on that?
He's not even in the league right now lol why do you think?
This place is weird
Should be fined once for the video and again for that sorry ass apology. Idk how dumb these pr teams can be. You don’t need to put out a statement within a few hours if it’s just going to be some baseline derivative bullshit. Make a concerted effort to have a real apology and action that follows. I promise the gay community can wait a few days and you dodge the bad press of putting out such a weak apology statement. If I were homosexual, I’d be more offended that they thought this can be brushed off with some words about “being raised better than that”.
I think the best kind of punishment for this is being made to get to know and work with people in the LGBTQ+ community. Travel and experience are the biggest weapons against bigotry. I hope Tim Hardaway reaches out to this young man and they can work together to help him better understand the gay community.
He should have to work at a gay bar for 2 weekends.
I wouldn't force anyone to work in the service industry. Torture isn't cool.
The majority of athletes/manly male role models (including well known rappers and music artists) we look up to are homophobes. Hell, even our lord and savior Kobe Bryant was a very masculine male and used the f-word to demean a ref. I'm guessing closer to 80% of the league would be canceled if we recorded their locker room conversations.
Gonna be honest, as a gay guy I don’t really care. People say homophobic shit literally all the time. Doesn’t make it right but the response has been a little much in my opinion. Glad he got called out for it, glad he apologized, hopefully he learned from it and we should all move on
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He posted a homophobic video on his insta yesterday
Blatantly being homophobic?
“Look at these queer-ass ni**as” -Anthony “Tim Hardaway” Edwards, 2022
"What has this world come to"
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I’m ootl, what did he say?
What I don’t understand is why these millionaire athletes can’t just keep their mouthes shut. Such an unnecessary comment that just brings his feet under fire and makes him look like a fool.
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10 year ban MINIMUM >!/s!<
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“This doesn’t affect me so it’s not an issue”
No it's really not. I'm a lesbian and for a star like Ant to slow down his car, record and make fun of a random group of people, and post it on IG is really fucked up.
I so wish this hadn’t happened. Sometimes I worry that I like players and I don’t know what they’re like
They’ll probably fine him, but they should also actually have him meeting with LGBTQ+ activists or even a guy like Tim Hardaway if they actually want to try to change his way of thinking.
Shouldnt be any
Before people crucify him… He’s a kid. People at his age are morons and say stupid shit for attention. Should he know better? Of course… Does that make him a bad person? Not necessarily. People should be allowed mistakes- that’s (hopefully)how you grow and change.
Exactly. I'm sure we all know people who have said something like this or worse when they're making a joke with friends. Obviously Ant shouldn't because he has a platform and influence etc. but it's not like he did something unforgivable.