Perth Wildcats guard Corey Webster is free to line up within the first sport of the NBL’s common season, regardless of being slapped with a ban for a homophobic social media publish.
Webster has already sat out one sport following the incident, and can miss a second if he re-offends.
On Sunday night time, Webster responded to a publish displaying the LGBTQI rainbow flag and the query: “What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you see this flag?”.
The 34-year-old wrote “mental illness” however later deleted his remark.
Basketball Australia’s integrity unit launched an investigation into the publish and introduced its sanctions on Thursday morning.
“Basketball Australia’s integrity unit found Webster breached the Basketball Australia Code of Conduct for Elite-Level Participants pertaining to discrimination and vilification following a comment he made on social media,” an announcement from the NBL learn.
The Wildcats stood New Zealand-born Webster down from Tuesday’s pre-season match in opposition to the Adelaide 36ers following backlash to his tweet.
Basketball Australia will allow the Wildcats to depend that sport for Webster’s ban, with the second sport solely triggered if the participant re-offends.
In deciding on Webster’s punishment, BA took into consideration that the participant had already apologised in an announcement launched by the membership.
Webster has accepted the sanction and might be out there for the Wildcats’ subsequent match of the pre-season NBL Blitz in opposition to the New Zealand Breakers on Thursday night time.
He might be free to take to the court docket for the Wildcats’ first match of the common season, to be performed in opposition to the Tasmania JackJumpers subsequent Friday.
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Source: www.perthnow.com.au
