Amare Stoudemire was fined $50,000 by the NBA for sending a vulgar private message to one of his Twitter followers that was later exposed on several websites.
Stoudemire told a follower that antagonized him on Saturday “F*** you, I don’t have to do any thing fag.” The direct message was intended to be private, but it was publicized by several blogs, including LBS.
Well after the offensive message went viral, Stoudemire sent an apology message to the fan, who publicized that as well to prove that his story wasn’t made up.
A day after saying they were investigating the incident, the league fined Stoudemire for his actions.
Their punishment is somewhat consistent with their past behavior. Joakim Noah was fined $50k for using a gay slur during a game, and Kobe Bryant was fined $100k for something similar.
We’re quite pleased that Stoudemire was fined for what he did. Not only is it wrong to use the language that he did, but hopefully he was taught a lesson about attacking his fans. It’s good that there is some retribution when athletes step out of line by belittling fans because it helps keep them in check.
We’re also not overlooking what a jerk the Twitter follower was — he’s not a victim here — but at least Stoudemire learned not to attack back in that manner.
