Joakim Noah and Kobe Bryant: Peacocks Stir the Pot of Gay Slurs
DATELINE: HUMOR!
A rash of brash players yelling homophobic slurs in the NBA may not seem a big deal. After all, the sport is often considered the most thuggish of all sports.
Yet, the irony remains after Los Angeles Laker Kobe Bryant and now Chicago Bull Joakim Noah took their jawing past the bounds of good-natured ribbing to the limits of bad taste and hateful souls.
Noah, the latest culprit caught on tape at Sunday night’s playoff game , may prove that two wrongs don’t make a right, but more likely proves you have to be an idiot to repeat history within a six weeks of the last incident. He immediately apologized, which begs the question of how aware or sincere he may be.
Of course, we presume that NBA players read the newspapers, talk to each other, and/or know what’s going on in the league fine arena. How presumptuous we are to think that Joakim Noah would know that Kobe Bryant was fined $100,000 for a similar situation.
Noah may actually be a worse case scenario for the NBA. He did not aim his vitriol at the referee, but at the paying fans. Fan abuse is nothing new. Just ask Ron Artest, now heroic and kindly figure that never met a fan he wanted to slug. From pompous twit to man of the people is something Artest has managed to perform.
Noah may be a bit harder to swallow. If the NBA fines him, will the yardstick of Kobe’s punishment be equal to the crime? Or has Noah reached the outer limits of biting the hand that feeds him? Noah may have sunk himself with an attack on a fan.
Your link: http://www.tmz.com/2011/05/23/joakim-noah-gay-slur-homophobic-chicago-bulls-nba-playoffs-tnt-miami-heat/
More to the homophobic point, gay websites are having a field day with cases like Kobe and Noah. Why?
It surely uncovers the dark underbelly of young male fans that think calling foul names is only normal, no big deal, and standard operating procedure for hotheaded athletes playing in a game. Young men with sexual insecurity are the first bashers.
Worse yet for the players, the gay websites are rife with rumors about the sexual peccadilloes of the professional athletes. Charles Barkley himself spoke recently about having gay teammates and how it should not be a big deal. Gay websites are all too willing to speculate about who’s sleeping with whom.
What is haunting and perhaps baiting to people like Kobe and Joakim is the fact that they are often the objects of homosexual rumors, scoffed upon for their lack of manliness. It may be the trigger that sets them off to separate themselves from being labeled someone’s punk.
But, NBA players are not in prison setting where manhood is a daily battle, or has the NBA devolved into a cesspool of fighting to be the last man standing?
Pointing out the foibles of modern athletes is a daunting task, but William Russo has accepted the challenge and writes endlessly about the deadly sins and lack of virtue among well-heeled heels of sports. Read SEX, DRUGS, SPORTS & WHIMSY, volumes 1 and 2, for insights into the real dopes.
