LOS ANGELES, United States, (AFP) – Minnesota Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards has been fined $40,000 for using homophobic language in a post on social media, the NBA said Tuesday.

NBA league operations chief Byron Spruell said Edwards was fined for using “offensive and derogatory language”.

Edwards, 21, had mocked a group of men in a video posted on his Instagram page earlier this month, referring to them as “queer ass”.

The video was subsequently deleted before Edwards issued an apology.

“What I said was immature, hurtful, and disrespectful, and I’m incredibly sorry,” Edwards said in a statement.

“It’s unacceptable for me or anyone to use that language in such a hurtful way, there’s no excuse for it, at all. I was raised better than that!”

Edwards, the No.1 pick in the 2020 NBA Draft, is one of several players who have been fined by the league for using offensive language.

In 2021 Brooklyn’s Kevin Durant was fined $50,000 for a profanity-laced tirade involving actor Michael Rapaport while late Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant was fined $100,000 in 2011 for making an anti-gay slur against an official.