During a televised sporting event that was watched by literally millions of people last night, Chicago Bulls center Joakim Noah was caught on one of the dozens of cameras which are constantly trained on him calling a fan a "f**king faggot." Clearly upset over being called for his second foul in the first quarter of the game, you can hear Joakim shout the slur around 0:19:
Noah apologized today for "saying something" to the heckling Miami fan, telling reporters "I got caught up…I don't mean no disrespect to anybody." It was the second time this season that an NBA player publicly used the word "faggot" on the court, after Kobe Bryant was fined $100K back in April. NBA Commissioner David Stern said at the time that "while I'm fully aware that basketball is an emotional game, such a distasteful term should never be tolerated."
The world of professional sports seems to be in the midst of an sea change with respect to acknowledging the gay community as professional athletes like Sean Avery and Steve Nash have given their support to same-sex marriage, and just last week Phoenix Suns president Rick Welts admitted that he was gay after a lifetime living in the closet. Welts told the New York Times that "this is one of the industries where the subject is off limits…nobody's comfortable engaging in a conversation."
And the Bulls lost to the Miami Heat, 96-85.
