National Basketball Association

Heat apologize to Amar'e over comment

Published May. 10, 2012 1:00 a.m. ET

foxsports

The Miami Heat and public-address announcer Michael Baiamonte are apologizing to Amar'e Stoudemire and the New York Knicks for a comment about how the forward was ''extinguished from the game'' when he fouled out of Game 5 of the teams' Eastern Conference first-round series.

The Heat say the phrase Baiamonte used represented a momentary lapse in judgment.

Stoudemire injured his left hand after Game 2 of the series when he struck a metal-and-glass case that holds a fire extinguisher near the visitors' locker room at AmericanAirlines Arena. Paramedics and doctors were summoned to stitch the wound, which stretched across much of the bottom of his hand and kept him out of Game 3.

After Wednesday's game, Stoudemire was quoted saying that the comment ''doesn't bother me.''