The NBA fined Joakim Noah of the Chicago Bulls $50,000 for saying, “F**k you, faggot” 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.
The league fined Noah “for using a derogatory and offensive term from the bench.” It explained the discrepancy in the two fines this way:
“Kobe’s fine included discipline for verbal abuse of a game official,” NBA spokesman Mark Broussard told the AP. The $50,000 fine is 1.6% of his $3.1 million salary this season.
We concur with Jim Buzinski's judgment:
Noah’s defense that he lost his cool doesn’t wash since there are plenty of neutral slurs one can hurl, yet he chose “faggot,” which tells me that to him this is the worst thing you can call someone. It’s a word that is still a major part of the jock lexicon. I think the only lesson Noah learned was to avoid saying it next time when the cameras are rolling
Read in full HERE.
And Kevin Arnovitz on the ESPN True Hoop blog interviews Noah, and relates a comment from Noah's mother:
Rodhe, the founder of Joakim's Noah's Arc Foundation, was admittedly disappointed, though she rationalized the context. "He chose the wrong word," Rodhe says. "He wanted to say, 'Move away and stop harassing me,' but he lost control and used that word."
I know that when I want to say, "stop harassing me", it often comes out as "f**king fa**ot."
From the interview:
Arnovitz: So it's safe to say you're really pissed off at yourself? Moderately pissed off at yourself? Pissed off at the potential consequences?
Noah: I'm pissed off that I'm a distraction to my teammates right now. We're playing the biggest game of our lives and this is off subject. I'm pissed off that I might've offended people.
Arnovitz: You realize you did offend people, right?
Noah: That's what I'm saying.
No, that's not what you said. Your offensiveness is not a hypothetical.
The Phoenix Suns' Grant Hill was interviewed on homophobia in basketball on the United States National Public Radio program Weekend Edition Saturday. Listen on our player below, or on the NPR website, where you can find a transcript, HERE.
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