UGH!

EVERYTHING DOESN’T NEED TO BE SOFTEN UP TO ASSOCIATE IT WITH THE GAY COMMUNITY….GEESH I’m rough around the edges, butI’m gay. it’s about time this happened.

In many ways, baseball is just as homophobic as basketball.

But it really helps when you have a stadium as close to the gayborhood as Wrigley Field is to Boystown (in fact, technically, it is in Boystown).

Oh, personally, I can stand neither hoops or watching baseball on TV (at the stadium I do like).

Thank you I really can’t believe he said that. But I thank him for his honesty, we need to start talking about these issues rather than skirting around them, and we need to start teaching people who are racist the error in their ways.

@ Anthony

You stated in your first post:
I know there are gay and lesbian people who like hoops, I am one of them. But as far as doing direct marketing to the LGBT community, I think the league may want to soften up its image first.

In your second post:

I’m talking about the difficulty of marketing to the gay community [which you weren't really, but okay]

“when casual homophobia is prevalent on the court. The NBA is rough and puts a premium on being macho”
[how is being macho all of a sudden homophobic? Maybe you are indicating internalized homophobia within yourself Anthony]

” For better or worse, the NBA became the sports version of rap over the last decade or so.”
[I'd like you to explain this comment further with examples, because this is a really spotty comparison. You say this happened in the last decade or so, which lines up with the increase of black players in the league overall. what is it that I'm missing?]

Anthony, I feel like you said something racist, and know you did, and now are trying to defend your goodness by changing what you said to sound better. Everyone is racist, so when you said “you need to improve your comprehension skills.” was ad hominem and unnecessary. I’m not trying to bring you down or anything like that, i was just saying how i perceived your comments, which i believed were racist, whether you thought they were or not.

Surely you jest? If that was what you took from my comment, you need to improve your comprehension skills.

I’m talking about the difficulty of marketing to the gay community when casual homophobia is prevalent on the court. The NBA is rough and puts a premium on being macho. For better or worse, the NBA became the sports version of rap over the last decade or so.

Dwight Howard, last year’s defensive player of the year, is criticized on a regular basis because analysts think he’s too nice (i.e., he smiles and doesn’t verbally abuse his opponents).

The only NBA players I can think of who have said anything remotely supportive of gays may be Adonal Foyle and Shaquille O’Neal. I believe Lebron James said he wouldn’t want a gay man on his team.

When you have a majority of NBA players coming from situations where it’s not likely they had a lot of interaction with gays, and there’s no real education in place once they get to the league, it’s hard to see the point of having gay nights.

RACE CARD!

Anthony did not say that. You did. Nor, did I get the impression that this was what Anthony meant or had in mind.

As a gentleman, you might have afforded Anthony the benefit of the doubt by asking him to clarify his comment…not be his judge and jury or suggest that he was being racist by mentioning the make-up of NBA players.

The fact is, and I quote from the following source, The NBA is 78% black, and over the last 5 years, only 3 non-black athletes were First-Team All-NBA.

http://www.associatedcontent.c.....html?cat=9

Given the hefty weighting of players that are black in the NBA, even if Anthony were suggesting that more white players might be included in the NBA, would that be a violation of private club rules or a crime?

You say it like it is a bad thing. Where is it written that the NBA is open only to African Americans who seem to have a virtual monopoly on it?

That sounds like either exclusivity (read racism) or self-imposed segregation to me.

Soften up its image? You mean put a quota on how many black guys can be in the league? Or maybe just make sure that all the team captains are white?

The gay community needs to understand that it is being pitted against blacks by the dominant white heterosexual society in order to take away from our combined efforts to rid this country of racism and homophobia.

The public image of NBA players, that is, tough black guys from the inner city, is not one that lends itself to LGBT-themed events.

I know there are gay and lesbian people who like hoops, I am one of them. But as far as doing direct marketing to the LGBT community, I think the league may want to soften up its image first.

The Phillies have hosted a gay night for many years… and those tickest go quickly… Guess Philly is the Greatest Gay sports town in the USA!