NBA and Nets have botched the rponse to Kev Durant’s gay ments - Outsports

Contents:

• HERE ARE THE 6 GAY MEN WHO HAVE BEEN OUT PUBLICLY WHILE PETG PRO BASKETBALL
• OUR 30TH MOMENT OF PRI: JASON COLLS SR FOR THE FIRST TIME AS AN OUT GAY ATHLETE
• A GAY NBA FAN FOUND 78 HOMOPHOBIC TWEETS BY 40 PLAYERS ON 23 TEAMS
• NBA, NETS, ACH AND PLAYERS HAVE ALL BOTCHED THE RPONSE TO KEV DURANT’S ANTI-GAY MENTS
• THE ONLY 3 OUT, GAY NBA PLAYERS IN HISTORY
• THE NBA HAS AN OPENLY GAY PLAYER: WHAT CHANG?
• DENNIS RODMAN SAYS HE THKS 10-20% OF PRO ATHLET ARE GAY AND THAT THE NBA IS READY FOR AN OUT ATHLETE

HERE ARE THE 6 GAY MEN WHO HAVE BEEN OUT PUBLICLY WHILE PETG PRO BASKETBALL

When John Amaechi me out publicly 2007, he was ahead of his time, sharg that he’s gay and a former profsnal basketball player. Sce Colls showed the world you uld be a gay man profsnal basketball, there has been a trickle of gay athlet to follow, most recently former NBA player and current Atralian pro basketball player Isaac Humphri.

Today, for the last of our 30 Moments of Pri, we revis Febary 27, 2014: the first NBA game which Jason Colls sred pots as an openly gay pro basketball player.

He beme the first active male athlete one of the big pro sports leagu to e out publicly as gay.

OUR 30TH MOMENT OF PRI: JASON COLLS SR FOR THE FIRST TIME AS AN OUT GAY ATHLETE

And I’m gay, ” Colls wrote “I didn’t set out to be the first openly gay athlete playg a major Amerin team sport. He later wrote The Players’ Tribune about the irony that some people believe out gay players provi a “distractn” to straight athlet. The ments are among 78 tweets om 36 current and active NBA players on teams that are homophobic language, nature or even tent (four other players were on a roster when the list was piled last month, but they are no longer on an NBA team).

The players clu CJ McCollum, the print of the Natnal Basketball Players Assn., who tweeted “no homo, ” as well as superstar Kev Durant, who tweeted “shut up fag boy. “I don’t re how long ago was, shows the person’s character, my opn, ” said Derrick Gordon, who me out publicly as gay while playg basketball at UMass and who now plays profsnally Germany. When “Chris, ” a young NBA fan who is gay, saw the tweets, they sadned and angered him.

“It was shockg but not surprisg, ” Chris said of the number of homophobic tweets he found.

A GAY NBA FAN FOUND 78 HOMOPHOBIC TWEETS BY 40 PLAYERS ON 23 TEAMS

“The culture of homophobia sports ns very ep, pecially a hyper-mascule league like the NBA.

Beg a big NBA fan, Chris cid to check the acunts of some of his favore players and found var homophobic tweets.

NBA, NETS, ACH AND PLAYERS HAVE ALL BOTCHED THE RPONSE TO KEV DURANT’S ANTI-GAY MENTS

From his rearch: “Fag” showed up 29 tweets, “gay” 40 (and not plimentary), and the phrase “no homo” 17. The Denver Nuggets and Utah Jazz each have four players on the list of NBA athlet who created anti-gay tweets, while the Chigo Bulls currently have three players who tweeted homophobic msag.

Not cintally, Jason Colls beme the first active NBA player to e out as gay 2013, raisg signifint awarens of LGBTQ issu — and the prence of gay players — the NBA. For example, Durant 2013 voiced his support of Colls, but he also ma graphilly homophobic ments 2021.

“Culture as a whole has changed, ” said Anthony Nimo, a succsful high school basketball ach New York who me out publicly as gay several years ago. Colls — who played as an openly gay player the last uple regular-season months and then playoffs of the 2013-14 season — has been speakg to NBA rooki at the league’s annual symposium sce 2015.

THE ONLY 3 OUT, GAY NBA PLAYERS IN HISTORY

Readg [the tweets] remd me a lot of my journal that I kept, and I stopped after two weeks, bee was jt … you hear , but you don’t really realize how much sual homophobia there was.

Speakg om my experience, there is a disnnect sometim between someone who sual homophobia, and then once you show them who you are, they will step up and have your back. Oshae Brissett of the Indiana Pacers, now 23, was 12 and 13 when he posted ne homophobic tweets a two-year span. One mon slur ed var tweets was “no homo, ” which me to vogue over 10 years ago as a way for a man to pliment another man whout beg taken “the wrong way.

“‘No homo’ as a phrase promot a negative nnotatn regards to gay men, as if we are ls-than, ” Chris said.

THE NBA HAS AN OPENLY GAY PLAYER: WHAT CHANG?

As a ach and tor, Nimo said he still hears “no homo” around teenagers — even beg out as a gay man — though the culture basketball has improved.

“Kids today sometim say ‘no homo’ or somethg like that, but there has unqutnably been a shift, ” he said. “If someone talks about puttg a bullet someone’s head, that’s beyond ‘I hate gay people, ’” Nimo said. The onle prence of the tweets 2022, even though wrten years ago, pots to a cultural problem wh athlet and anti-gay language.

DENNIS RODMAN SAYS HE THKS 10-20% OF PRO ATHLET ARE GAY AND THAT THE NBA IS READY FOR AN OUT ATHLETE

Kda homo “/2014Kev Durant“shut up fag boy”/2009“you sound gay son”/2009New York Knicks. Pl Reed“Bch be gay today, bi tommorow, and pregnant sunday ha”/2014 “Why is so many niggas drs up like girls and putt on wigs tryna be funny. Mallm Hill“homo# LOL”/2011Zach LaVe “@perrnTF @juice_wilson49 both y’all r gay”/2014Javonte Green“You gay for subbg”/2016Cleveland Cavaliers.

Oshae Brissett“This guy is sooooo gay on my b”/2012“you want all the guys on the street to love you ew your gay”/2012“you sound like a girl..