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“It’s this kind of language that scares people from coming out because they don’t believe they’re going to be accepted. Nicodemo went further and explained why this episode - a private conversation laced with homophobia - is exactly the opportunity for more conversation, not something to try to ignore: And there is an opportunity to talk about it and rectify this and talk about the mistake.” “In a time where social justice is at the forefront, especially in the NBA, here you have a situation where one of the best players in the history of the NBA is using very clear homophobic language to try to hurt somebody. New York high school basketball coach Anthony Nicodemo put it perfectly to me: Yet in Durant’s case: a terse statement, no suspension and “let’s move on, nothing to see here.” “The step from a financial penalty to a suspension, to me, was one that we knew would attract attention,” Silver said in an interview on Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski’s podcast. In 2015, commissioner Adam Silver’s response after fining and suspending Rajon Rondo in 2015 for using a gay slur towards an official explained the power of losing playing time. Normally, the league is proactive in dealing with issues like this. Whether the cricket-response is the league downplaying homophobia or giving a future Hall of Famer a pass, we should get answers. What he said was so graphic I won’t paste it here, but you can see the tweets for yourself. One player even defended Durant and his use of graphic anti-gay language, saying, “ He didn’t do nothing wrong.”įor contrast, then-Miami Heat center Meyers Leonard uttered an anti-Semitic slur in a video game stream last month and is now not even with a team.ĭurant’s anti-gay infractions were multiple, repeated, and it can’t be said enough: designed by Durant to be graphic and to elicit a negative response.
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“Disappointing” doesn’t begin to describe the response.
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While wearing shirts lobbying for social justice and using their platforms to push for equality and acceptance, when it came to one of their own last week - again, using the most graphic homophobic language I’ve ever heard from any professional athlete ever - NBA players closed ranks and stayed quiet. “Durant has acknowledged that his actions were inappropriate.” In contrast, professional leagues across other sports have utilized suspensions, even when the language was not heard publicly. He will literally more than pay off this fine halfway through the first quarter of his next game. Fines for someone like Durant are truly meaningless. No suspension, which we know is what speaks volumes to players. The NBA fined Durant $50,000 for the infraction.
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So how did almost every single one of them respond to Kevin Durant - one of the league’s biggest stars and a future Hall of Famer - using literally the most graphic homophobic language I’ve ever seen from a professional athlete? Many people across the NBA want homophobia and homophobic language in sports to go away.
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Various teams - Los Angeles Lakers, Sacramento Kings, Philadelphia 76ers - have rolled out the proverbial red carpet for the LGBTQ community at various games. Some of the current and former players and coaches have been amazing. They created a line of T-shirts that showed each team’s logo in rainbow colors. The league has participated in the New York Pride March multiple times. Collectively they have all also dropped the ball in responding to graphic homophobic comments by Brooklyn Nets superstar Kevin Durant. The NBA, its teams and players have pursued many initiatives to support the LGBTQ community and gay athletes in the last few years.