LaMelo Ball Fined $100,000 For Anti-Gay Comment
Homophobic slurs and anti-gay rhetoric are unfortunate parts of some sports locker rooms. There's a misunderstanding that in order to be a great athlete, a player has to be an alpha male and radiate a macho mentality. This leads to locker rooms full of men uncomfortable with their own sexuality, lashing out in ignorant ways, to show just how macho they are.
The newest example of this is Charlotte Hornets guard LaMelo Ball, who used anti-gay rhetoric in a post-game interview. After the Hornets' 115-114 win over the Milwaukee Bucks on Saturday, Ball was interviewed by sideline reporter Shannon Spake. She asked about the Hornets' defensive strategy versus Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Ball showed his true colors.
"We loaded up - no homo."
A Google search about the term will explain that it's used when someone says something that could be interpreted as gay, and they want the world to know that it was not meant in a homosexual nature. It's obvious that Ball thought that saying the Hornets loaded up, could be considered a gay comment, and he wanted to ensure everyone, it wasn't meant that way.
For starters, nobody watching, or listening to the interview would think Ball was describing anything sexual, since he was asked about a basketball game, and not his private life. Secondly, the idea that he was terrified someone might think that, and had to set the record straight, reeks of insecurity with his own identity.
The NBA has fined Ball $100,000 for the comment. Last year. In 2018, Nikola Jokic was fined $25,000 for the exact same comment. He was new to America, and it's likely he was repeating a phrase he heard used around the team locker room. Five years later, Cam Thomas paid a $40,000 fine for the same phrase.
With the dollar amount continuing to go up for the phrase, Adam Silver and league officials have made it clear, that there is no place in professional basketball for that language. There will no doubt be a fake apology in the coming days. Ball will read off a piece of paper that team attorneys filled out for him. The speech will sound something like, "I am deeply sorry, and didn't mean to offend anyone. I believe in equality, and deeply regret my insensitive remarks."
Ball won't mean a word of what he was told to say, and will likely go back to his teammates and have a laugh about it. He may even refer to the person who fined him as an F-slur. There's no way to police what players say in private, and the sad thing is, that Ball probably doesn't think he did anything wrong. He is oblivious to the reality that he shamed himself, his team, his friends, and his family.