And everyone just accepts that as a fact of life, like cold weather in Milwaukee or how much it hurts when you jam your fingers. The men in charge of these sports, the commissioners like Stern, shrug their shoulders and say all that matters is can a fellow play.
Well, that's not all that matters to those gay players, whoever they are and however many of them there are. It matters that they're afraid to tell the truth about who they are. It matters that they figure they'll lose the respect and support of their teammates and coaches, maybe they'll even lose their jobs, if they dare to become the gay Jackie Robinson.
That laissez-faire approach -- "Have you got game? That's it, end of inquiry" -- is awfully weak coming from people who pay so much lip service to the real Jackie Robinson. Standing up to bigotry is all well and good as long as it happened long enough ago, as long as it's not the bigotry of our guys.
Why is it OK with Stern that the intolerance of the people who are the very product of his business is accepted, taken as a given? Why is it OK that some unknown number of employees in that business -- people at the very top of their profession -- just have to hunker down and endure a hostile environment at work, every day, every night?
What if Philadelphia 76ers forward Shavlik Randolph had said he's not really comfortable with black teammates, but he manages? What if he'd said, "As long as you don't bring your blackness on me I'm fine"? And "As far as business-wise, I'm sure I could play with him. But I think it would create a little awkwardness in the locker room"?
That would be so not OK it's almost impossible to express. Randolph would get a thank-you card from Michael Richards for taking the heat off of him. But Randolph said those things about having a gay teammate, so, hey, no problem.
Stern should take this opportunity to make it clear that this sort of intolerance, even the kind of backhanded, grudging acceptance reflected in all those quotes about how guys could handle a gay teammate as long as he didn't try to get funny in the shower, is out of bounds.
Stern should mandate that teams hold pride-night promotions, educate their players about the evils of homophobia -- pointing out the parallels between anti-gay attitudes and racism might change some minds in a majority-black league -- and punish players and coaches who make homophobic statements just as those who make racist comments are punished, at least with public censure.
Rather than pretending that it's all and only about whether a guy can play, Stern should work with GLAAD or similar groups to proactively fight intolerance. The NBA and other pro leagues are unusual workplaces, but they're workplaces all the same, and there have been programs to combat workplace prejudice in existence for decades.
Amaechi, 36, a man widely liked and respected by his teammates when he was a marginal player with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Orlando Magic and Utah Jazz, might be a good spokesman for such a campaign.
In Amaechi's case, the answer to Stern's inquiry -- "Have you got game?" -- was "only a little." But there are more important games than the one played on a 94-foot hunk of hardwood. There's one called real life. And on this play, so far, David Stern hasn't got game.
Previous column: The experts got it wrong?
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
About the writer
King Kaufman is a senior writer for Salon. Visit his column archive. You can e-mail him at king at salon dot com or visit his MySpace page.
Story finder (3 ways to search Salon)
Salon Directory (browse by topic)
