Anthony Edwards raised many eyebrows last week when he posted an Instagram story full of homophobic comments when he spotted a group of men hanging out at night. The Minnesota Timberwolves young star was met with a lot of criticism for his comments, which forced him to apologize for his behavior.
Even though he already apologized, the backlash hasn’t stopped, and while the league is reviewing should they punish him for his comments, fans, team officials, and even legends are criticizing Edwards for his unfortunate comments.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Calls Out Anthony Edwards For His Anti-Gay Comments
Los Angeles Lakers legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is the latest to criticize Edwards’ remarks, saying that his comments don’t help anybody and instead reinforce the idea that athletes are always like this and have no respect for minorities. He went on to say that Ant-Man needs to go further and do more than issue an apology.
My Take: Another athlete, another anti-gay slur. Last year, Kevin Durant was fined $50,000 fine for using “offensive and derogatory language on social media” after texting messages that included threatening language and anti-gay and misogynistic slurs. He also apologized.
It would be easy to dismiss Edwards’ immaturity—he’s only 21—if not for the fact that we’ve seen so many cases of famous athletes and owners in the news spouting racism, misogyny, and anti-LGBTQ+ sentiments. This damages sports in general and their teams specifically, and revives the old stereotype of the dumb, bullying jock.
But more important, it perpetuates prejudice against a group and that prejudice often leads to restricting rights and to violence. I don’t think an apology—however heartfelt—is enough. Edwards needs to repair the damage with some voluntary community service with LGBTQ+ organizations, particularly youth groups, to show his support. If he can’t do that much to undo the harm he’s caused, then his apology is meaningless.
What Edwards did was wrong, and everybody has expressed their disappointment in the player. He should know better than this, and even though the youth card has saved him before, this time, he went too far. Now, he needs to show he’s ready to do better, and Kareem has offered a big solution to this issue. The league is yet to announce what sanction they’ll give to Ant, and that won’t probably be the end of it.
