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Amar'e Stoudemire Fined $50,000 For Gay Slur Tweet
By
Jen Chung
Published Jun 26, 2012
Modified Jun 26, 2012
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By
Jen Chung
Published Jun 26, 2012
Modified Jun 26, 2012
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After sending a direct message to a Knicks fan that said, "Fuck you, I don't have to do any thing, fag," the NBA has fined Amar'e Stoudemire $50,000.
Knicks fan Brian Ferrelli shared the direct message (sent on June 23) with Deadspin, which wrote, "Now, granted, this dude totally trolled Stoudemire with a nonsensical taunt basically out of left field ('you better come back a lot stronger and quicker to make up for this past season mannnnnn deadasss!!!'), but still. At this point Amar'e has surely heard worse—I mean, I don't even know what a 'deadasss' is—so it's a little surprising that this prompted such an ugly response." Stoudemire apparently realized the problem with sending such a Tweet, since he apologized and blamed it on his traveling, "I apologize for what I said earlier. I just got off a plane and had time to think about it. Sorry bro!! No Excuses. Won’t happen again."
A source told the Daily News yesterday that Stoudemire knew he "made a big mistake, and he wishes he could take the whole thing back," and Ferrelli added, "I don’t want to make this situation any bigger than it already is. He apologized and I accepted it." Weirdly, Stoudemire re-Tweeted a racist/homophobic Tweet on June 24 from a Twitter user with only that Tweet to his/her nam ("@Amareisreal Fuck you! You are the pussy ass nigger faggot! Somebody needs to fucking lynch your nigger ass and cut off your nigger head").
No word on whether Amar'e will outsource his Twitter, the way Ashton Kutcher has. Last year, Kobe Bryant was fined $100,000 for calling a ref a "faggot." Bryant said later, "What I said last night should not be taken literally. My actions were out of frustration during the heat of the game, period. The words expressed do NOT reflect my feelings towards the gay and lesbian communities and were NOT meant to offend anyone."
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amare stoudemire
basketball
deadasss
gay slur
knicks
kobe bryant
zero tolerance
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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