(Image Source: Wikipedia Commons )

BY MIHIR BHAGAT

ANCHOR ANTHONY MARTINEZ



Be careful what you tweet. NBA All-Star Amare Stoudemire is learning that the hard way. After a fan criticized the Knicks power forward on Twitter for his play last season, Stoudemire responded with an anti-gay slur in a direct message. The fan tweeted a screenshot , which went viral.  

"F** you. I don’t have to do anything f**,"

The NBA says it will investigate the situation. The league has cracked down on anti-gay remarks the past year. It fined Kobe Bryant $100,000 and Joakim Noah $50,000 when cameras caught them mouthing anti-gay slurs. The league also sponsored a public service announcement addressing the issue. New York Magazine says this would be a non-issue if Stoudemire chose a different insult.

“This wouldn't have been nearly as troublesome, and probably not even news, if he'd just stopped at "F*** you" or picked a better put-down...”

The NBA bans players from tweeting 45 minutes before each game.  But an MSNBC writer would like stricter restrictions. He wrote Stoudemire’s incident shows the professional sports world has a lot to learn about the power of social media.

“It's amazing that some athletes fail to prepare for the reputation risk which comes from social media, and that professional leagues haven't managed to control it.”

But Deadspin says Stoudemire just needs to control his emotions.

“At this point Amar’e has surely heard worse … so it’s a little surprising that this prompted such an ugly response.”

WYNW explained how Stoudemire’s tainted reputation will hurt his bottom line.

“If you're a marketer and you're about to sign Amar’e to a marketing deal and you see what happened, there's a lot of fans who are going to say say, wow, wait a second. Let's maybe take a second thought. Maybe we'll sign somebody else.”