The American National Basketball Association (NBA) has fined professional basketball player LaMelo Ball (23) a maximum of $100,000. This was preceded by an anti-gay choice of words by the 23-year-old Charlotte Hornets player, which the league did not want.
“not gay”
On Saturday, Ball led the Charlotte Hornets to a 115-114 victory over the Bucks, scoring 26 points, nine rebounds and six assists. After his team’s narrow victory, Ball explained in a TV interview: “We shut everything down – absolutely not gay. That’s what we want: hand up and then live with the results.” (We loaded up – no homo. That’s what we want, put a hand up and then live with the results.”)
The youth term “no homo” was developed in Harlem in the 1990s and was intended to inform the conversational partner that something was said to be happening without homosexual intent. From the hip-hop scene to rappers in the US, the term has finally become the slang language of the US youth. In the USA, the phrase is seen as synonymous with homophobia and discriminatory humiliation, like “fagot”.
The professional basketball player’s regret
The NBA at least did not ignore Ball’s behavior, Ball used a clear “insulting and defamatory” expression, so the organization imposed the maximum penalty on the professional player Ball said the next day after the loss against the Cleveland Cavaliers: ” Before we start, I want to talk about my comment yesterday. I didn’t mean anything by it and I don’t want to offend anyone. I don’t discriminate.
Players have been punished many times for using “no homo”: Jamaican basketball player Roy Hibbert had to pay a fine of $75,000 for it in 2013. Most recently, the NBA imposed a fine of $40,000 of Cam Thomas of the Brooklyn Nets and a fine of $25,000 on Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets – here again, professionals use the term homophobic interview in both cases. Start of form End of form