Nets guard Cam Thomas apologized after using an anti-gay phrase in his postgame interview Thursday night.
In a live interview on TNT following a 116-105 win over the Bulls, Thomas was asked about about recently acquired teammate Spencer Dinwiddie’s comment in his introductory press conference, where the guard said that he and Dorian Finney-Smith “might not be the best trade package, but we’re the best-looking. And the Nets need some help in that department.”
“I seen it, but I was like, ‘He just talking,’” Thomas told TNT’s Jared Greenberg, with Dinwiddie, who returned to Brooklyn as part of the Kyrie Irving trade, at his side. “We already had good-looking dudes, no homo.”
Before transitioning into the next question, Greenberg replied with, ‘All right, I’m sure the league office will enjoy that one.”
It is not yet clear if the NBA reached out to Thomas, but the 21-year-old offered a mea culpa on social media.
“I want to apologize for the insensitive word I used in the postgame interview,” Thomas wrote on Twitter. “I was excited about the win and was being playful. I definitely didn’t intend to offend anyone, but realize that I probably did. My apologies again. Much love.”
Thomas has not been fined throughout his two-year NBA career, according to Spotrac’s fine and suspension log. According to Outsports, Nuggets star Nikola Jokic was fined $20,000 in 2018 for using the same anti-gay slur during a postgame interview.
Thomas has become a budding star for the Nets across the last seven days, stringing together three consecutive games with 40-plus points. It marked the first time a Brooklyn player had ever accomplished that feat, while the 21-year-old guard also became the youngest player in NBA history to surpass that 40-point threshold in three straight games.
But in Thursday’s win over Chicago, the shots didn’t fall at the same clip. Thomas didn’t score in the first half, though he still finished with 20 points on 3-for-16 shooting — with 13 of those points coming via free throws. Thomas also dished out four assists and grabbed a season-high six rebounds.
Brooklyn will rely on Thomas, who has averaged 10.6 points per game this season, to help plug the role vacated by Irving and Kevin Durant, who were traded to the Mavericks and Suns, respectively, at the NBA trade deadline. Dinwiddie and Finney-Smith, from Dallas, will be joined this weekend by former Suns Mikal Bridges and Cameron Johnson.
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