Just so we’re all on the same page here.
Homophobia=bad.
Awesome writers condemning homophobia=awesome.
Starbury=batsh*t. It doesn’t matter if he’s gay, straight, bisexual, asexual, desexual, metrosexual or tyrusthomasexual. He’s still completely freaking nuts. Dude ate Vaseline. I don’t know any gay guys or lesbian women that eat Vaseline. I don’t know any straight dudes or women that eat Vaseline. There is zero correlation between “how” gay Marbury is (because, you know, it’s a measurable, like length and upside. I’m sure Morey’s got a formula for it somewhere. /sarcasm) and how Ron-Artest-on-a-bad-day-in-Thailand nuts he is.
Back when Marbury was close to negotiating the buyout, I argued that Walsh and company played it right and that Marbury didn’t deserve a dime more than he could possibly squeeze out of them. My FH mates and I got into a little discussion about it, in which several of them said “Just wait, he’s going to make a huge difference for Boston.” Berman over at the Post echoed this, saying “D’Antoni made one indisputable mistake in his first year as Knicks head coach – a mistake that could follow him all the way till June’s Finals. He never gave Marbury a chance.”
Yeah. About that. And that’s a lesser thing that bugs me the most about Haywood’s comments. They immediately cast Marbury as some type of victim, when he’s not. He’s an oddball NBA player doing wacky things online to create attention. He’s an entity now, not a basketball player. He’s famous for being famous for being weird. And yet we’re all still watching, and now the whole thing is taking on a “waiting for rock bottom” feel to it. And that’s just icky.
Haywood apologized, or “apologized” depending on who you talk to. So I’m not hung up on condemning the guy, though I do want to point out how disappointing it is that the Wizards traded Etan Thomas, because now I want a Crossfire-esque sitdown in a studio with a black background between the two. Maybe the only good thing to come out of this whole situation is to cast a light on how repressed and stunted the NBPA collective social awareness is. I’d bet good money that the league has sponsored equality education classes which players go to and ignore (much like all of their college classes). But it’s clearly not getting through.
I’m not calling for anyone’s head. But I do want to see the league respond to this. Not publicly. The last thing we need is another empty gesture. However, they need to look at this situation and say “We have neglected to foster a safe, secure environment for employees regardless of sexual orientation, and we need to do something about this.”
Ignoring the widespread negative environment that exists in regard to this situation is just as crazy as eating Vaseline, smoking weed on camera when you’re trying to get a gig, and dancing around mostly-naked on the internet.
