Reaction To Openly Gay Former NBA Player Intensifies

John Amaechi, a member of the NBA's Utah Jazz (2001-2003)and Orlando Magic (1999-2001) basketball teams has made headlines recently by coming out of the closet as gay and signing up to be a spokesperson for HRC's Coming Out Project. The 6'10" (November 26, 1970 in Boston, MA) Amaechi has a recently released autobiography entitled Man in the Middle detailing his childhood growing up in England and the path he took to playing professional basketball in the United States despite not picking up a basketball until age 17!

Black, gay heavy hitter blogs Rod at Rod 2.0, Pam at pamshouseblend.com and Keith at keithboykin.com have been following this story pretty carefully. A few days ago billionaire Mark Cuban, owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks, issued a comment to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram where he claimed that an active NBA playing coming out of the closet would be a good career move.

"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.

On the flip side, if you're the idiot who condemns somebody because they're gay, then you're going to be ostracized, you're going to be picketed and you're going to ruin whatever marketing endorsements you have."

Yesterday, the plot thickened when another former NBA player (Miami Heat) Tim Hardaway gave an interview to a sports radio station where he said:

"First of all, I wouldn't want him on my team. And second of all, if he was on my team I would really distance myself from him. I don't think that he should be in the locker room while we're in the locker room. I hate gay people, so I let it be known. I don't like gay people and I don't like to be around gay people. Yeah, I'm homophobic. I don't like it. There shouldn't be a [place] in the world for that or in the United States for it. So I don't like it."

"Oh no he di'n't!" Oh yes, he did! The reaction to these blatantly homophobic remarks has been swift. Keith Boykin has said that Hardaway's "broadcasting career should come to a screeching halt. No apologies, no excuses, no rehab. Just fire his ass anywhere and everywhere he works with the media."

Hardaway issued a semblance of an apology to the Miami Fox affiliate WSVN later, saying: "Yes, I regret it. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said I hate gay people or anything like that. That was my mistake."

The National Basketball Association itself has stepped into the fray. NBA Commissioner David Stern cancelled all of Hardway's appearances on behalf of the basketball league which were set to happen this week around the All-Star Game in Las Vegas, Nevada this weekend. "It is inappropriate for him to be representing us given the disparity between his views and ours," said the NBA head in a statemement released to the media.

Gee, I guess GLAAD knew what it was doing when it created that position to monitor homophobia in sports that Mad Professah highlighted two weeks ago, eh?

Amaechi will be in Los Angeles soon, at the Santa Monica Barnes & Noble bookstore on Saturday February 24th at 2pm signing copies of his book.