Pause: NBA Fines LaMelo Ball $100K For ‘Derogatory Comment’ Rooted In Homophobia
LaMelo Ball #1 of the Charlotte Hornets reacts to a call during the first half of a basketball game against the Milwaukee Bucks at Spectrum Center on November 16, 2024, in Charlotte, North Carolina. | Source: David Jensen / Getty
The NBA fined one of the professional basketball league’s brightest young stars for using “offensive and derogatory” language that’s also a popular slang phrase rooted in homophobia.
The NBA announced on Sunday it was fining LaMelo Ball, of the Charlotte Hornets, for his choice of words following a controversial one-point win against the Milwaukee Bucks on Saturday afternoon. Ball hit the game-winning free throws in the waning seconds following a questionable call by a referee to secure the victory in dramatic fashion.
But it was Ball’s behavior off the court after the game that made headlines more than his play between the lines during those consequential 48 minutes in Charlotte.
When Ball was pulled aside by a sideline reporter and asked about a late-game play involving Bucks star Giannis Antetekoumpo, the Hornets’ star point guard explained as only he could.
“We loaded up,” Ball began before adding, “no homo.”
Ball continued to speak, but it was those fateful two words that caught the ear of the NBA, which announced Ball would be penalized $100,000 for uttering that phrase.
The NBA described those two words as “an offensive and derogatory comment.”
For the uninitiated, those two words are slang associated with a phenomenon unofficially known as “the pause game” and used by participants when any words spoken might contain context that could remotely suggest any semblance of homosexuality.
The Urban Dictionary website defines those two words more bluntly and says they are “used to show that whatever you did no matter how gay isn’t gay as long as you say no homo.”
It’s as inane as it is offensive to the LGBTQ+ community and beyond.
The phrase is often used interchangeably with the word “pause” and has become all but a staple in hip-hop references, as evidenced in part by its repetition on the popular It Is What Is Is sports podcast hosted by rappers Cam’ron and Ma$e.
The NBA fine is consistent with past disciplinary actions handed down to its players for using homophobic language.
Most notably, the late Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant was fined $100,000 in 2011 for calling a referee a homophobic slur.
Four years later, Sacramento Kings guard Rajon Rondo was ejected for directing the same word toward referee Bill Kennedy. Rondo was subsequently suspended for a game, forfeiting his $83,000+ payday for that absence. Less than two weeks later, Kennedy revealed that he was gay.
Critics have said the penalty doesn’t fit the proverbial crime, particularly since NBA players tend to enjoy inflated contracts that deem such fines as $100,000 relatively inconsequential. Bryant, for instance, was earning more than $380,000 per game when he was fined for his transgression. For perspective’s sake, NBA teams play 82 regular season games, not including the playoffs.
Ball, who is earning more than $35 million for the 2024-25 NBA season, did not immediately comment on his $100,000 fine.
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