When an otherwise forgettable journeyman NBA center makes such a statement, his legacy begins and ends with it. His career will be defined by it. In the testosterone-driven landscape of American team sports, John Amaechi withheld his secret until his NBA career came to an official end only weeks ago. Whether that decision was wise, foolish, or ultimately necessary to survive depends on what NBA star you ask.
The English center's career was spent with the Cavaliers, Magic, and Jazz, with the Knicks recently cutting him from the roster after he had not played in an NBA game in four years. His career totals: 294 career games played (301 if you count playoffs), 6.2 points per game, 2.6 rebounds per game, 40 percent shooter from the field, 67 percent from the foul line, 1837 total points. In only one season, 1999-2000, with Orlando, did Amaechi average over 10 points per game.
In essence, it was an unremarkable playing career that is now transformed into something infinitely more meaningful. John Amaechi's career, struggles, and his stunning admission in the form of an upcoming book entitled Man in the Middle implore us as a sports nation to look into our composite reflection and ask the question: can we handle the truth?
Since then, a number of NBA personalities have answered with colorful, mixed, and controversial results, often washed down with media backlash. The most notable of these opinions belongs to the one NBA fans have deemed a king.
"With teammates you have to be trustworthy, and if you're gay and you're not admitting that you are, then you are not trustworthy. So that's like the No. 1 thing as teammates — we all trust each other. You've heard of the in-room, locker room code. What happens in the locker room stays in there. It's a trust factor, honestly. A big trust factor."
It was predictable and right that LeBron James would be bashed for expecting a gay teammate to come clean to his teammates. After all, his quote contains an obvious flaw. What happens when one of those teammates you so trust with that secret gets traded two weeks later and decides to "trust" his 11 new teammates with that same information?
76ers center Steven Hunter added fuel to the fire with his quote, as well. "As long as he don't make any advances toward me, I'm fine with it," said Hunter. "As long as he came to play basketball like a man and conducted himself like a good person, I'd be fine with it."
Both of these comments were slammed harshly in the press and on television the next day as sportswriters around the nation reacted in some ways out of disgust, but in other ways out of fear. Perhaps the situation appeared most striking on ESPN's duo of sportswriter debate shows, "Around the Horn" and "Pardon the Interruption," on the day following Amaechi's admission.
The writers seemed to all be engaged in a game of politically correct hot-potato, as they appeared to discard their own inner voices to eliminate all risk of being made the next poster boy for homophobia. This couldn't be how they talk about the situation off-camera, could it? After all, sportswriters of all people know that it only takes the slightest verbal slip to be called bigot and given a cultural dunce cap by all others with a voice — after all, it's what they do for a living themselves.
The chief example of this phenomenon was the reaction to Hunter's quote. Hunter clearly expressed tolerance of a gay athlete in the league by saying he "would be fine with it." This was not good enough for the sports media because of the grain of salt he poured on that tolerance by saying "as long as he doesn't make any advances towards me." But in many outlets, this was printed as, "as long as he doesn't bring his gayness on me," thus making the comment appear to be perhaps more close-minded than it may have been.
This begs the question. Is it wrong and homophobic in today's culture for a straight male to simply request that he not be hit on by a gay male? If this is true, then perhaps most of us need to do some soul searching of our own before pointing the finger. If this is true, then perhaps we have to deal with the reality that we are being brought up in a partially homophobic world, and as such, have somewhat of a bias to overcome.
Growing up and going to school in the 1990s, gay slurs were thrown around the hallways, locker rooms, and cafeterias like the day's lunch food, to the point where they seemingly lost all meaning, at least to us straight males. Machismo was the only way to prevent alienation, and this theme proved only stronger for the sports teams, where head coaches would use these same gay slurs to invoke fear and disgust in their players. All the while, the assumptions were seemingly made that everyone who heard these words and jokes were straight themselves, and thus, no one was allegedly offended.
As we matured however, as individuals, and as a nation, on our understanding of the gay community and just how prevalent it was, most of us learned to accept the alternative lifestyles and not pass judgment. However, this did generally come with the unwritten, but well-known clause that Hunter speaks of. Just don't hit on me. It was a way to assert that while we tolerated and could be friends with gay men and women, we still did not want anything to do with joining their lifestyle. This implies a sense of discomfort that could perhaps be construed as insulting to the gay community, and yet it is so embedded into the consciousness of the heterosexual male, many of us believed this concept to essentially be taken for granted by all.
Yet this was lost upon many, until a recent Super Bowl ad for Snickers was pulled due to complaints of homophobia. The ad, as I'm sure you can recall (and I'm sure more of you were snickering right along with that commercial than are willing to admit now) featured two men eating the same Snickers bar from opposite ends until their lips meet in the middle, prompting panic for both and one of them to cry out "quick, do something manly." The second man answers by gratuitously ripping off a patch of chest hair as a means to try to negate the act.
However, this act was considerably less homophobic than Jim Carrey burning all his clothes while he agonized in the shower and consumed every piece of chewing gum he could find after realizing he had kissed fictional Dolphins kicker Ray Finkle in 1994's comedy hit Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. Where was the moral outcry then?
Perhaps it's merely a sign of the times. For some, 1994 doesn't seem too long ago, but it was pre-Queer Eye and pre-Brokeback. Since then, our culture has made some serious adjustments that can often conflict with the thought processes of individuals still looking to do little more than maintain and assert their own identities.
Once again, the issues of sport do a great job to reflect the strengths and weaknesses of our culture. In this case, the current result, as seen on ESPN's sportswriter shows mentioned earlier, is a whirlwind of homophobia and the subsequent counter-homophobia sensitivity to the point where few know what to say and how to say it in a way that is both acceptable and candid. Even as I write this piece myself, I question whether I am being considerate enough and honest enough to all parties involved, for gay men, straight men, and my own voice. It sure has become a tough tightrope to walk — for everyone.
Far from a secret is the fact that team sports, especially rugged, high-contact ones, are the final frontier for the gay community. While a select number of athletes in different sports have come out, like Amaechi, after retirement, only one notable athlete so far has admitted to being gay in mid-career. That athlete was Sheryl Swoopes of the WNBA. Her willingness to come out was seen as an inspiration and a breakthrough moreso than anything else, but the men's game appears decidedly more difficult to crack.
Yet Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has decided this is a challenge he is more than willing to take on. The innovative and outspoken owner spoke out and managed to put an intriguing new spin on the old question of "will we ever see a gay male athlete come out during his career?"
Said Cuban, "From a marketing perspective, if you're a player who happens to be gay and you want to be incredibly rich, then you should come out, because it would be the best thing that ever happened to you from a marketing and an endorsement perspective. You would be an absolute hero to more Americans than you can ever possibly be as an athlete, and that'll put money in your pocket."
Cuban's comments appear to make perfect sense so long as the athlete who makes this commitment possess some marketable talent and personality. Perhaps it wasn't meant to be for someone like Amaechi, who was rarely, if ever, under the public spotlight off the little time he got on NBA courts.
This one statement alone greatly increases the chance that someone, possibly someone already prominent, will muster up the courage and tell the sports world he is gay. Whoever does this may be able to turn a potential burden into dollar signs and end up benefiting greatly from the decision in the long run. Many other athletes may also see this and admire this man for being such an inspiration and an icon to so many.
Amaechi has added to the speculation of such an event by stating also that he is certain of a number of other gay NBA players currently populating the league. Perhaps that future chosen one is already among them.
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