2008 Woodie Awards
Fear and loathing in the NBA
Joe Caporoso
Issue date: 2/22/07 Section: Op/Ed
- Page 1 of 1
There are all different types of people in this world. People with different sexual orientations, people with different levels of tolerance and people with different skill sets and we all coexist side by side in this country we call America. Now you may wonder why I started my article with an obvious statement. I did this because it kept running through my head as I was bombarded with constant news about homosexual basketball players and people who dislike them.
For those who don't keep up with current events, a former NBA player, John Amaechi, announced in his recently published book that he is gay. Amaechi played in the league for a brief amount of time and never did anything notable while playing in America. Now that he is retired, he made the announcement and will sell a lot of books, and that's good for him. Yet, quite annoyingly, the coverage was on ESPN 24/7. It's an interesting issue to discuss for a day or two, because he worked in an environment that is notoriously homophobic. However, the story was simply beaten to death. If some backup center that played in the NBA for four years is gay, what does that mean to me as a sports fan? I would rather hear about the upcoming games for the night or the playoff race. I know there are homosexuals in this country, and it's not shocking that some of them play basketball. This is not groundbreaking news.
I don't look at Amaechi as a hero or someone who was being courageous. If he had come out of the closet while he was playing, then it would be a different story. He waited until he retired and wrote a book, and then made the announcement. It will help him gain a profit in sales, and then his 15 minutes of fame will come and go.
Just when it finally looked like the story was going away, another revelation happened that would dominate the news for yet another week. While on a Miami radio station, another former NBA player, Tim Hardaway, was quoted as saying, amongst other things, "I hate gay people." There are biggoted people, intolerant of others just because of their sexual orientation. Again, this is not groundbreaking news. He has since followed with a cliché round of insincere apologies.
Hardaway's clearly a person with some homophobic issues, and if that's his personal choice then that is fine. Yet, a person does not need to advertise such a hateful message to the entire public. This is especially true for someone who serves as a role model in our society, and someone who probably faced some discrimination at one point in their life as an African American.
This entire course of events didn't teach the American public anything new. It only frustrated sport fans who were just trying to get som news about their favorite teams or the upcoming NCAA Tournament. America's a diverse country. We need to accept that all different types of people do all different types of things. People are intolerant; it is wrong, but that is just the way some people are. We don't need nine different shows or specials on ESPN to tell us that.
For those who don't keep up with current events, a former NBA player, John Amaechi, announced in his recently published book that he is gay. Amaechi played in the league for a brief amount of time and never did anything notable while playing in America. Now that he is retired, he made the announcement and will sell a lot of books, and that's good for him. Yet, quite annoyingly, the coverage was on ESPN 24/7. It's an interesting issue to discuss for a day or two, because he worked in an environment that is notoriously homophobic. However, the story was simply beaten to death. If some backup center that played in the NBA for four years is gay, what does that mean to me as a sports fan? I would rather hear about the upcoming games for the night or the playoff race. I know there are homosexuals in this country, and it's not shocking that some of them play basketball. This is not groundbreaking news.
I don't look at Amaechi as a hero or someone who was being courageous. If he had come out of the closet while he was playing, then it would be a different story. He waited until he retired and wrote a book, and then made the announcement. It will help him gain a profit in sales, and then his 15 minutes of fame will come and go.
Just when it finally looked like the story was going away, another revelation happened that would dominate the news for yet another week. While on a Miami radio station, another former NBA player, Tim Hardaway, was quoted as saying, amongst other things, "I hate gay people." There are biggoted people, intolerant of others just because of their sexual orientation. Again, this is not groundbreaking news. He has since followed with a cliché round of insincere apologies.
Hardaway's clearly a person with some homophobic issues, and if that's his personal choice then that is fine. Yet, a person does not need to advertise such a hateful message to the entire public. This is especially true for someone who serves as a role model in our society, and someone who probably faced some discrimination at one point in their life as an African American.
This entire course of events didn't teach the American public anything new. It only frustrated sport fans who were just trying to get som news about their favorite teams or the upcoming NCAA Tournament. America's a diverse country. We need to accept that all different types of people do all different types of things. People are intolerant; it is wrong, but that is just the way some people are. We don't need nine different shows or specials on ESPN to tell us that.