April 13th, 2011 
Troy Ballard 
Posted in 
Kobe Bryant has been fined a whopping $100,000 by David Stern following a homophobic slur directed at referee, Bennie Adams. During a game against the Spurs, Adams called a technical foul on Bryant and the Lakers star responded by yelling, “Bennie!” Then when Phil Jackson called a timeout, Bryant went to the bench slammed his fist against a seat, and then mumbled a homophobic slur directed at Adams.
TNT caught Bryant in the act, and Stern was quick to react, as he issued the fine the following day. Stern took Bryant’s comments very seriously and has garnered a great amount of praise from the gay-lesbian communities. Although, the gay and lesbian community is still looking for a much deeper and more meaningful apology from what Bryant has already said.
Stern’s comments following the comments were, “While I’m fully aware that basketball is an emotional game, such a distasteful term should never be tolerated,” he said. “Accordingly, I have fined Kobe $100,000. Kobe and everyone associated with the NBA know that insensitive or derogatory comments are not acceptable and have no place in our game or society.”
Bryant has already issued an formal apology, “What I said last night should not be taken literally,” he said. “My actions were out of frustration during the heat of the game, period. The words expressed do NOT reflect my feelings towards the gay and lesbian communities and were NOT meant to offend anyone.” Even with Bryant’s apology, there are many who are still upset with the comments and believe that a suspension should also be included in his punishment.
With the loss of Andrew Bynum in the Spurs game, if the Lakers were to lose Kobe, the playoffs would be over before the Los Angeles could even get started. The fine may seem to be a lot, but Stern is ensuring that Bryant or any other player in the NBA knows that comments like that have a zero tolerance policy.
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