J.J. Redick Asks for Forgiveness Over Alleged Chinese Racial Slur
Philadelphia 76ers shooting guard J.J. Redick was recently caught in a controversy where he was accused of saying a Chinese racial slur. The NBA player has since asked forgiveness from fans.
Redick was one of the 30 NBA coaches and players who took part in a video greeting for the recent Chinese New Year. A lot of fans were convinced that Redick said the word "c***k" that is often regarded as a racial slur towards Asians.
A Chinese YouTuber posted a video of him reacting to Redick's greeting, and more fans followed and criticized the professional basketball player. Shortly after the videos gained negative feedback from people, Redick took to Twitter to apologize and explained that he did not intend for anything he said to be racist.
"To all our NBA fans in China and everyone celebrating the Chinese New Year, I want to sincerely apologize to anyone I may have offended," Redick wrote.
The player explained that he had meant to say "NBA Chinese fans" but thought that it "sounded weird" so he decided at mid-sentence to paraphrase his greeting and say "NBA fans in China." Redick maintained that at the time of the greeting's filming, no one watching him do it "heard the word that [he] purported to say."
"That is not a word in my vocabulary but I now understand how it sounds on the video," Redick added. The player continued that he had been "fortunate" to play several overseas NBA games in China in 2007 and 2015 and "loved the experience, the culture, the history, and most of all, the people."
Meanwhile, Brooklyn Nets guard Jeremy Lin also addressed the issue on social media and posted a statement confirming that he has since spoken to Redick. "I truly believe he didn't say a racial slur and that he has a great deal of respect towards Chinese people," Lin wrote
