FOUL LANGUAGE
MIAMI Heat center Meyers Leonard was seemingly caught using an anti-Semitic slur during a livestream on Tuesday.
The 29-year-old was recorded using the shocking slur as he played on a Twitch stream and berated his competitors for "sniping him."
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"F**king cowards, don't f**king snipe me!" he begins, before shouting the derogatory term to describe Jewish people, "You f**king k**e b**ch!" before another male is heard laughing.
The Heat have not yet publicly responded to their star center's use of the racist term.
Leonard is currently out for the remainder of the season after suffering a shoulder injury and last played in an game in January.
He built up a substantial following sharing his streaming sessions in recent years, earning him a partnership with professional eSports organization FaZe Clan in June 2019.
He boasts over 69,000 Twitch followers and more than 550,000 between and Instagram.
The Virginia-born basketballer is yet to offer an explanation for the video, but he was seen receiving a phone call during the Tuesday Twitch stream, before he promptly left the game.
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He had tweeted prior to the stream that he would give away Astro Gaming headsets to followers in a since-deleted post.
The Anti-Defamation League, an organization dedicated to stopping the defamation of Jewish people, slammed Leonard's use of the ethnic slur.
"We are shocked and disappointed to see @MeyersLeonard use this ugly, offensive #antisemitic slur," they .
"We have reached out to the @MiamiHEAT and @NBA about this and urge Mr. Leonard to issue an apology immediately for this egregious and hateful rhetoric."
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The Sun attempted to contact Leonard and his representatives but he could not immediately be reached for comment.
It is not the first time Leonard has landed himself in hot water either - during the NBA'S 2019/2020 season restart, he opted to stand for the national anthem – while the rest of his Heat teammates took a knee to condemn racism.
He later defended his decision in August, suggesting he could act as a patriot as well as an ally of the movement.
"I think I can be a beacon of light ... not only for my voice or platform and action, but in everything I'm doing," he .
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"I certainly support Black Lives Matter. I am very aware of what is going on. But I can be both. My patriotism runs deep.'"
The National Basketball Association has displayed a tough stance on racism in recent years.
They publicly supported the Black Lives Matter movement in the wake of George Floyd's death by emblazoning basketball courts with the BLM.
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