Earlier today, I wrote about Bulls center Joakim Noah’s gay slur on national television last night.
I felt that Noah deserved the same $100,000 fine Lakers guard Kobe Bryant got for his gay slur in April.
The NBA has officially announced that Noah will be fined $50,000.
Chicago Bulls forward Joakim Noah has been fined $50,000 for using a derogatory and offensive term from the bench during the first quarter of the Bulls’ 96-85 loss to the Miami Heat last night in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals.
I think a slur is a slur regardless of who it was targeted at, and while I think fines are just a very small part of a solution, punishment should be equal.
According to Matt Moore of CBSSports.com, Bryant’s fine included discipline for verbal abuse of a referee.
I think this kind of thinking is flawed. Should Noah not also be fined an extra $50,000 for discipline of verbal abuse of a paying fan?
As I said in my post earlier, fans are very important to the game being as successful as it is and the players’ contracts being as lucrative as they are. If the NBA is a company, and the fan is a paying customer, shouldn’t that be just as important and punishable by the same fine?
