In the last 14 years, nine NBA players have been fined a total of $616,000 for using anti-gay language or gestures during and after games.
There has been one fine a year for the past four years and Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards accounts for two of these. Then-Celtics player Rajon Rondo wasn’t technically fined, but his one-game suspension in 2015 cost him $86,300 in salary. The league has fined even some of its biggest names for anti-gay slurs, including Kobe Bryant.
Just because a player has used anti-gay language does not automatically mean the player is homophobic or can’t change. Bryant is a classic example. After calling a referee a gay slur and being fined $100,000 in 2011, Bryant issued a heartfelt apology and spent the rest of his life as an LGBTQ ally.
Here are the NBA players fined for anti-gay behavior since 2011.
Story: Who knew Minnesota Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards is a size queen? This fixation seems to have cost him $50,000.
The NBA fined Edwards $50,000 for his “my d— bigger than yours” comments to the Lakers crowd during Minnesota’s Game 1 playoff win.
Story: LaMelo Ball has been fined $100,000 by the NBA for a homophobic comment he made in a post-game interview.
Ball’s Charlotte Hornets beat the Milwaukee Bucks in a nailbiter, 115-114, before Ball decided to use a clearly homophobic term on national television.
He was asked a question about the last play of the game, when Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo got off a last shot and missed the bucket.
“We loaded up,” Ball said. Then, out of nowhere: “No homo. But that’s what we wanted.”
Story: The NBA fined Cam Thomas $40,000 for using “derogatory and disparaging language during a live TV interview.” The Brooklyn Nets guard apologized after uttering the anti-gay slur “no homo” in a TV broadcast after the Nets beat the Chicago Bulls.
Story: Anthony Edwards has been fined $40,000 by the NBA for his anti-gay homophobic language he posted of himself on his own social media.
In announcing the fine, the NBA continued the league’s poor handling of the situation by refusing to specifically call out the clear homophobia or that the intended target of the homophobia was the LGBT community, and gay men in particular.
Story: Nikola Jokic, a center for the Denver Nuggets, was fined $25,000 by the NBA for using a gay slur during a post-game interview on Halloween.
Jokic was fined for saying “He’s long — uh, no homo — he’s longer than you expect,” Jokic said when asked by reporters about [Chicago’s] Wendell Carter Jr. after the Nuggets’ overtime victory [over the Bulls].
Rajon Rondo (2015) $86,300 in game salary for one-game suspension
Story: NBA referee Bill Kennedy has come out publicly as gay just over a week after he ejected Sacramento Kings guard Rajon Rondo for a torrent of homophobic comments and slurs during a game. Rondo was suspended one game for the incident.
“I am proud to be an NBA referee and I am proud to be a gay man,” Kennedy told Yahoo! Sports. “I am following in the footsteps of others who have self-identified in the hopes that will send a message to young men and women in sports that you must allow no one to make you feel ashamed of who you are.”
Story: Indiana Pacers center Roy Hibbert was fined $75,000 after saying “no homo” in discussing playing against Miami Heat star LeBron James at a press conference after Game 6 of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals won by the Pacers.
Story: Amar’e Stoudemire of the New York Knicks was fined $50,000 by the NBA for calling a fan a “f*g” on Twitter. Stoudemire had apologized for the slur and expressed his remorse after being fined
Story: The NBA fined Joakim Noah of the Chicago Bulls $50,000 for saying, “F**k you, f*ggot” to a Miami Heat fan. It was only half of what the league fined Kobe Bryant for a similar slur hurled at a referee last month.
Story: The NBA fined Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant $100,000 for calling referee Bennie Adams a “fa*ggot” during a game.
Bryant eventually issued a heartfelt apology and recorded an anti-bullying PSA.
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