Some people have to learn the hard way. Some people never learn. And then there’s those that you think have learned the hard way, only to find out that they’re actually the type that never learns.

That’s Amar’e Stoudemire for you.

In 2012, while playing for the New York Knicks, Stoudemire was fined $50,000 by the NBA for DMing a fan critical of his performance an angry message that contained a homophobic slur.

He did this despite the NBA having just handed Chicago Bulls player Joakim Noah a fine for the same amount for hurling gay slurs at a fan during a game.

Stoudemire, who told The Jerusalem Post in 2010 that “I have been aware since my youth that I am Hebrew through my mother,” now plays for the Israeli professional basketball team Hapoel Jerusalem.

In an interview with the team, Walla Sport asked many of its players if they would have a problem playing alongside someone who was gay.

Stoudemire’s teammates gave answers like, “I wouldn’t have a problem,” “I wouldn’t have an issue with it” and “What?! Oh no, oh no.”

Stoudemire’s response, as you’ve probably guessed, was very different. Alarmingly different. Disturbingly different.

As one of his colleagues looked on, obviously embarrassed, Stoudemire said,”I’m going to shower across the street, make sure my change of clothes are around the corner, and I’m going to drive — take a different route to the gym.”

The reporter gracefully tried to give the ex-Knick an out, asking him if he was joking.

But Stoudemire, again, having learned from his DM debacle, refused to take it, doubling down by saying, “I mean, there’s always truth within a joke.”

Seeing as Stoudemire owns the team, he probably won’t have any gay teammates any time soon, but let’s hope that somehow he, and the rest of the world’s homophobes learn that gay people are about as scary or evil as your average straight person. That is, not scary or evil at all.

Hapoel

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