Jalen Smereck opens up about Andrei Deniskin's racist gesture directed at him in the UHL

Over the weekend, the hockey community had its collective jaw drop after HK Kremenchuk's Andrei Deniskin threw out a racist gesture to Donbass Donetsk's Jalen Smereck in the Ukranian Hockey League, miming a banana peeling motion toward the 24-year-old before taking a fake bite in one of the most classless and disrespectful acts in recent memory.

Smereck, an African-American hockey player and a native of Detroit, Michigan, is now joined by a long line of others both in hockey and watching from the sidelines who would like to see Deniskin banned from the national team for life.

«That's the deepest it's ever been for me. Usually, it's just words. But that was brand new to me. This is by far the worst," Smereck said on Monday.

Deniskin did issue an apology to Smereck following Sunday's game, albeit a weak and disingenuous one, likely more to try to save face more than to actually attempt to atone for his disrespectful and unacceptable act - but Smereck simply isn't having it, nor should he.

«There's just no apology for that. If you said something, OK, maybe it slipped out. But a full act like that? I think personally it was talked about before the game. It may have been a joke in the locker room or with another teammate. For him to instantly respond with a reaction like that, it was something that was talked about before for sure.»

While the hockey world awaits an official decision on Deniskin for his reprehensible actions, the desired outcome seems pretty clear to Smereck.

«I definitely think he should be done for the year,» Smereck said. «For me, I would think his career is pretty much over(he should be) suspended for this year (from the league) and get a suspension for the rest of his career from Team Ukraine. There's no way to apologize for that. And even the apology he gave was really bad.»

On whether or not Smereck would like to continue his pro hockey career in the UHL moving forward, the American had this to say:

«I'll take a few days off here and decide what I want to do with this. I'm thinking about it right now and I'm just trying to figure it out. To be honest, it's up in the air. I want to see what will happen (in terms of a suspension) and regardless of what happens, I might change my mind and head home. Or I might stay. I just don't know right now. I'm in a tough headspace.»

There is no room for this type of disrespect in hockey - or in society. Absolutely despicable. Hopefully the league gets this one right in its ruling.

Source: Ken Campbell

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