A gay NBA fan known only as Chris has found 78 homophobic tweets made by 40 professional players on 23 NBA teams. The word “fag” was used in 29 tweets, “gay” in 40, and the phrase “no homo” in 17, Outsports reported.
Most of the tweets were made between 2009 and 2013, two years before the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage. In some cases, the players posted the tweets years before they officially joined the NBA.
Related: NBA executive Rick Welts marries his partner Todd Gage
Attitudes have changed nationwide and in the NBA since many of the tweets were written, but few had been deleted (until recently it seems).
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“I don’t care how long ago it was, it shows the person’s character, in my opinion,” said basketball player Derrick Gordon.
Gordon came out as gay while playing basketball at the University of Massachusetts and now plays pro-basketball in Germany. “It’s a slap in the face to me, to other people in my community. That’s disrespectful. I’m not for people losing their jobs, but words like that can’t be tolerated.”
Four of the players on the list represented the U.S. at the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Summer Games. The list also contains players from the Brooklyn Nets, the New York Knicks, the Chicago Bulls, the Dallas Mavericks, the San Antonio Spurs, as well as four players from the Denver Nuggets, four from the Utah Jazz, and six from the Phoenix Suns.
A 2013 tweet from the Indiana Pacers’ Oshae Brissett said, “get off my twitter you fag.”
A 2011 tweet from Gold State Warriors player Draymond Green says, “shut up gay boy.”
Another player caught red-handed is current Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant. In April 2021, it was also revealed that Durant used profane and anti-gay slurs directed at actor Michael Rapaport via a social media chat.
Durant faced a $50,000 fine levied for his slur, reportedly the most allowed under the collective bargaining agreement.
“I’m sorry that people seen that language I used,” Durant said while apologizing for his messages. “That’s not really what I want people to see and hear from me, but hopefully I can move past it and get back out there on the floor.”
