It’s been about three seasons since Meyers Leonard has played on an NBA court, and he’s looking to get back in the league.
While playing Call of Duty, Leonard was shot and got mad. That’s when he decided to go on a tirade using very antisemitic language. He was subsequently fined $50,000 and suspended from the Heat indefinitely. That indefinite suspension made him no longer in the league because it ended his contract.
Now he wants back in and says he is living a bad dream via ESPN.
“I feel like I’m living in a bad dream,” Leonard told Jeremy Schaap of “Outside the Lines” in an interview that aired Tuesday. “… There’s not a hateful cell in my body. And I know that I made a huge, huge mistake.”
“There are absolutely no excuses for what happened that day. And ignorance, sadly, is a very real thing. … I am not running from this, but I did not know that it happened.”
Leonard last played in the NBA in January 2021. He was suspended in March 2021 for using an antisemitic slur while playing a video game during a livestream. He underwent ankle surgery in April 2021 and said he suffered nerve damage as a result of the procedure.
He spent time rehabbing shoulder and ankle surgeries over the past two seasons while out of professional basketball.
Leonard has played in 447 NBA games, averaging 5.6 points and 3.9 rebounds. He also gained notoriety for standing while his teammates knelt to bring attention to the issue of police brutality during the playing of the national anthem in the Orlando bubble during the COVID-19-delayed 2019-20 season.
Leonard recently worked out for the Lakers and could be serviceable to many teams, so it’s just a matter of time before we find out if anyone will want him.
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