Chicago’s Joakim Noah fined for insult

MIAMI - Chicago Bulls center Joakim Noah was fined $50,000 on Monday for yelling an insulting remark, believed to be a gay slur, at a spectator in Miami during his team’s NBA playoff loss on Sunday night.

Television cameras showed Noah appearing to say “faggot” after sitting down on the bench just 5:34 into the opening quarter of Miami’s 96-85 win, which gave the Heat a 2-1 lead in the Eastern Conference best-of-seven final.

“I apologize,” Noah said. “The fan said something to me that I thought was disrespectful and I got caught up in the moment and I said some things that I shouldn’t have said.

“I was frustrated and I [didn’t mean any] disrespect to anybody. I just got caught up.”

The fine imposed by the NBA was half the amount the league imposed on Los Angeles Lakers playmaker Kobe Bryant last month for saying the same thing to referee Ben Adams during a game.

A league spokesman said the Bryant was fined more because he was verbally abusive to an NBA game official.

Noah met with NBA officials Monday before he was fined for his remark to the taunting Heat supporter.

“I don’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings,” he said. “Anybody who knows me knows that I’m not like that. I’m an open-minded guy. I said the wrong thing and I’m going to pay the consequences - deal with the consequences - like a man.”

Noah also said Monday that he would learn from his mistakes and his frustration did not excuse his remark.

NBA commissioner David Stern said last month that “such a distasteful term should never be tolerated” and added “insensitive or derogatory comments are not acceptable and have no place in our game or society.”

On Monday, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation issued a statement on its Web site and said its officials had been in touch with the NBA and the league was “taking this situation extremely seriously.”

“Last month the NBA sent an important message about how such slurs fuel a climate of intolerance and are unacceptable,” Glaad president Jarrett Barrios said. “These anti-gay remarks, coming so soon after, demonstrate how much needs to be done.

AFP

한글 관련 기사 [연합]
美 농구선수 게이 비하 욕설로 5만弗 벌금

미국 프로농구(NBA) 시카고 불스의 센터 조아킴 노아(26)가 게이 비하 욕설로 5만달러(약 5천500만원) 벌금을 물게 됐다.

23일(현지시간) 시카고 abc방송 등에 따르면 노아는 전날 플로리다 주 마이애미 아메리칸항공 아레나에서 열린 NBA 동부 콘퍼런스 챔피언십 3차전 경기 1쿼터 도중 상대팀 마이애미 히트 팬에게 게이를 뜻하는 저속한 용어를 내뱉었다 NBA 사무국으로부터 이 같은 액수의 벌금 처분을 받았다.

노아는 전날 경기 직후와 23일 오전 두 차례에 걸쳐 공식 사죄 입장을 밝히고 중징계를 받을 수 있다는 것을 인정했다.

노아는 "경기가 잘 풀리지 않던 중 두 번째 반칙을 받아 감정이 격해진 상태에서 상대팀 관중으로부터 지속적인 조롱을 듣자 잠시 이성을 잃었었다"며 "그러나 팬이 무슨 말을 했던지 간에 그런 언어를 사용한 데 대해서는 변명의 여지가 없다"고 사죄했다.

지난달에는 LA 레이커스의 간판스타 코비 브라이언트가 경기 도중 심판을 향해 같은 단어를 사용, NBA 사무국으로부터 벌금 10만달러(약 1억원) 징계를 받은 바 있다.

NBA 사무국은 노아의 벌금이 브라이언트의 벌금보다 적은 이유는 브라이언트에게는 심판을 향한 폭언에 대한 과징금도 포함돼 있기 때문이라고 밝혔다.