Greg M. Cooper – USA TODAY SPORTS
One of the biggest issues for gay players when talking about coming out is the possible reaction of fellow players and media. With the news of Jason Collins announcing he is gay, the 34-year-old center has opened up Pandora’s box when it comes to NBA players opening their mouths. These athletes are not the sharpest tools in the shed, but it will be interesting to see whose political motives will result in ill words towards Collins.
Even when asked the most simplistic questions, players like J.R Smith give some of the most controversial sound bites. It’s wrong to blanket the entire league with a low IQ level, but someone is going to say something controversial and it’s only a matter of time. We have already been given a precursor to the situation with NFL players like Chris Culliver of the San Francisco 49ers using gay slurs, but that is just the tip of the iceberg.
Hopefully, these multimillionaires can leave their enormous egos and tremendous trash talking skills on the sideline as it would be disappointing to see one player ruin the remarkable impact that Collins is set to make. Also, it will be incredible to see the reaction of Collins if and when one of his colleagues speak out. This situation lends for idiotic remarks, and unfortunately the asinine comments will cloud a likely accepting league.
The office pool of who will go public with their anti-gay comments ranges from Kevin Garnett to Metta World Peace, but someone’s moronic ways are going to make waves. Collins deserves all of the respect in the world, however, in this free country people are entitled to their own opinion and you can bet one infamous NBA player will voice their different point of view.
For those of you dismissing the possibility of ignorance from NBA players, think back to Karl Malone‘s response to Magic Johnson in 1992 — the Utah Jazz forward wanted to alienate Johnson for his sexual transmitted disease.
