Is Gay OK in the NBA?

So . . . it was recently announced that Rick Welts, President and CEO of the Phoenix Suns basketball team, is gay.  For most of the world, big deal/who cares/so what.  For the world of sports, big news.  Despite the probability that there have been dozens if not hundreds of gay athletes in the history of professional sports, it remains one of the last bastions (along with the military) where you'd better keep your sexual orientation to yourself if that orientation is not hetero.  I'm going to mostly avoid the typical pontificating on the topic (i.e. let people live their own lives because it doesn't affect you), though I may stray into that, and try to keep to the topic of how this announcement is being dealt with.

Prior to going public with his exit from the closet, Welts met with several key people in his professional life: the team owner, Suns star Steve Nash, NBA commish David Stern.  As discussed in this ESPN blog entry, Stern's stance is an unfortunate one: privately supportive, publicly neutral.  So he's there for Welts, as long as it doesn't foster public debate or require him to take an overt stance on anything.  Seems like a play from Michael Jordan's "Republicans buy sneakers too" school of public relations.  And I actually get to praise the um, let's say, usually un-praise-worthy Isiah Thomas for his stance in the article, which is one of "if a player being gay is a problem, I'm going to make sure it isn't a problem."

The standard quote from athletes has to do with winning.  We're going to do what we can to win, it doesn't matter if we get along as long as we win, winning is the only thing that matters.  Except, it seems, if it means winning with a homosexual on your team.  There is still a strong, prevalent macho atmosphere present.  Last month there was a post in the same ESPN blog about how Shaq considers the advice he got from Rick Barry to shoot free-throws "granny-style" to be the dumbest he ever received.  Why?  Because he'd look less manly. 

Are players going to be less likely to sign with Phoenix  because the team president is gay?  Who knows.  Would they be less likely to sign with a team that has an openly gay player?  I would say definitely yes.  Right around the time that Welts was discussing his announcement with David Stern, Kobe Bryant was rebuked by the league for calling a referee a fag.  It got minor attention in the sports press, more for the rebuke than the action.  Former NBA all-star Tim Hardaway announced on a radio show that he hates gay people after a former teammate came out of the closet (prompting this Jimmy Kimmel segment with George Takei).

Look, I don't understand the strong hatred that many have against gay people.  I have heard otherwise reasonable people say they would rather their kids be murderers than be gay (though it could be argued that they could not then also be reasonable).  Maybe it's evolutionary, the need to cast out those who do not procreate and therefore do not enlarge and extend a particular society.  Maybe it is fear of the unknown.  Maybe, as Scott Thompson says, it's the epithets.