Jeremy Lin pens support of JJ Redick after apparent racial slur in Chinese New Year video
Chinese New Year celebrations took place over the weekend with people in China and around the world welcoming the Year of the Dog on Friday.
With the celebration coinciding with NBA All-Star weekend and the league being hugely popular in China, several NBA players participated in a video last week with well wishes for the holiday.
Philadelphia 76ers guard JJ Redick participated and shockingly appeared to use a racial slur while addressing Chinese fans.
“I just want to wish all of the NBA c—k fans in China a very happy Chinese New Year,” Redick said.
Here’s the video, which was produced by Chinese media company Tencent and not officially affiliated with the NBA. Redick’s contribution starts at the 52-second mark.
It’s stunning to hear, and even more so that it actually made the cut of the initial version of the video. After an uproar surfaced on social media over Redick’s slur, another version was released, omitting Redick.
Redick apologized and claimed that he didn’t actually use the slur, but was “tongue-tied.”
Just saw a video that is being circulated of me wishing a happy new year to NBA fans in China.Clearly I was tongue tied, as the word I purportedly said is not in my vocabulary. I’m disappointed that anyone would think I would use that word. I love & respect our friends in China.
— JJ Redick (@JJRedick) February 18, 2018
That’s a hard pill to swallow. His words in the video are clear. At the same time, it’s almost harder to believe that Redick would actually use that word in this video regardless of what his feelings are. The whole thing is just bizarre and offensive.
The incident prompted a response from Brooklyn Nets guard Jeremy Lin, who is the first American-born player of Chinese or Taiwanese descent in the NBA. He is also no stranger to controversy over this particular racial slur.
wanted to address this… pic.twitter.com/3oB2mUvQpc
— Jeremy Lin (@JLin7) February 19, 2018
Lin says he spoke with Redick and believes that he did not say the word that appeared evident on the video.
Regardless of Lin’s support, this is going to be tough for Redick to live down.
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