Non-discrimination language was added into the agreement that protects players from discrimination, including based on sexual orientation.

The NBA joins the NFL, NHL, Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer in having such policies. This is important since its protects any player from being discriminated against (such as being cut) because he is gay. Major props to Rafael McDonnell of the gay advocacy group Resource Center Dallas for keeping me abreast of this. McDonnell has been a tireless advocate in pushing these policies in pro sports by writing letters to both union and league representatives.

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Part of Outsports’ series on our 100 most important moments in gay sports history.

Basketball 2007: Amaechi played for two of his five NBA seasons for the Utah Jazz for an owner who, after Amaechi had left the team, refused to show “Brokeback Mountain” in his theaters because of the gay theme. So it was ironic that the NBA’s first publicy gay player was a member of that franchise.

Amaechi retired following the 2003 season and came out publicly in 2007 with the release of his autobiography “Man in the Middle.” Being the first NBA player to publicly come out, his story garnered widespread attention. He appeared on media outlets across the U.S. and in his England, where he lives, sparking a wave of reaction, most of it positive.

One high-profile negative reaction came from former NBA player Tim Hardway, who said he hated gay people. Hardaway was roundly condemned and he became a changed man because of it, now leading a fight in his native El Paso in a gay rights battle. If it hadn’t been for Amaechi telling his story, Hardaway likely would never have began his journey of acceptance.

Amaechi, a motivational speaker and entrepreneur, has never been shy about voicing his opinions, and has often ruffled feathers, even in the gay sports community. He is passionate about what he believes in and communicates it well, making his views still relevant in the sports word. When Kobe Bryant this spring called a referee a “faggott,” the New York Times sought out Amaechi to write his perspective:

… When someone with the status of Kobe Bryant, arguably the best basketball player in a generation, hurls that antigay slur at a referee or anyone else — let’s call it the F-word — he is telling boys, men and anyone watching that when you are frustrated, when you are as angry as can be, the best way to demean and denigrate a person, even one in a position of power, is to make it clear that you think he is not a real man, but something less.

I challenge you to freeze-frame Bryant’s face in that moment of conflict with the referee Bennie Adams. Really examine the loathing and utter contempt, and realize this is something with which almost every lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender person is familiar. That is the sentiment people face in middle and high schools, in places of worship, work and even in their own homes across the United States. …

I was always struck by the public reaction to the coming out of Amaechi and that of the WNBA’s Sheryl Swoopes in 2005. Amaechi was not a star and yet his story became fodder for media coverage for weeks and still reverberates. Swoopes is a superstar, yet when she came out there was nowhere near the level of interest. I remember Bill Maher quipping along the lines of, “A lesbian basketball player? Knock me over with a feather,” which summed up most people’s feelings.

Amaechi was aware of the import of a man coming out in sports, when he told Will Leitch in a New York magazine piece this week: “I came out three years after finishing a reasonably average career, and everybody freaked out. Imagine if I had been good.”

For more information:

• Amaechi website
• The Outsports 2007 interview with Amaechi
• Amaechi Wikipedia page

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“I really like ESPN,” Barkley added. “They do a great job. But like once every two or three months, they bring all these people on there, and they tell me how me and my team are going to respond to a gay guy.

“First of all, every player has played with gay guys. It bothers me when I hear these reporters and jocks get on TV and say, ‘Oh, no guy can come out in a team sport. These guys would go crazy.’ First of all, quit telling me what I think. I’d rather have a gay guy who can play than a straight guy who can’t play.”

Barkley said that it was common for other players to gossip about who was gay, saying it was human nature, and adding that it was “them bible thumpers, who are supposed to be non-judgmental, who rail against them.”

He said that society, and not just sports, has discriminated against gays, and had this comeback to any player who expresses concern about having a gay teammate:

“Any professional athlete who gets on TV or radio and says he never played with a gay guy is a stone-freakin’ idiot,” Barkley said. “I would even say the same thing in college. Every college player, every pro player in any sport has probably played with a gay person.

Barkley’s message: Don’t worry. Deal with it.

“They’re not going to do anything in the locker room,” he said. “Doesn’t work like that.”

Barkley’s blunt language is a refreshing change from all the hand-wringing that often goes on around this issue. After covering this subject for a decade, Cyd and I agree that it would not be anywhere near as hard for a pro athlete to come out as is generally perceived, and it’s nice to have Sir Charles in our corner (and please read Wise’s entire column, which is excellent).

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The video, which advocates against bullying, is reaching a demographic heavy with young males by being aired during a basketball games. And to hear “gay” during a nationally televised sporting events was a bit jarring since I can’t recall it before. A lot of these young men watching could be bullies, potential bullies or bullying victims, so it’s a great target audience. Video:

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The NBA star told an Argentine newspaper (this is from an online translation):

With regard to the law of marriage between same sex, NBA player was in favor: “I am all for marriage. I think we all have the same rights. Although in reality with regard to adoption do not feel able to give an opinion. “

His reference to adoption was in regards to the gay marriage bill also giving gay couples the right to adopt. I was sent this link from Andrés Duque of the blog Blabbeando, who goes into great detail about the marriage law.

Update: Duque got the video and translated Ginobli’s full remarks:

Reporter: You’ve been told, pardon me, about the polarization of the country and, in addition, yesterday there were two protests in the country which have divided society – and different personalities have expressed what they think about gay marriage, yes or no. Do we have your opinion?

Ginobli: I am in favor of gay marriage – eh – specially of the rights – eh – needed by people who are equal before the law – eh – and it doesn’t affect the rest of society… it doesn’t, if they are gays … yes? let them be and do whatever they want, I am in favor, and it seems to me…

Reporter: What about adoption?

Ginobli: Adoption is much more delicate,I don’t feel I have the qualifications, I don’t know which studies have been done, if there is any background.  I know that, I believe – I don’t know, as an outside observer, without knowledge of what scientific data there is out there – that for a baby it should be better to be with two dads than to be in an orphanage.

Duque also referenced a popular Argentine soap opera that had a storyline about two soccer players in love. The episode aired this spring. “It’s the first time the soap viewers realized the character of ‘Flaco’ liked men (he’d been introduced as a married man with children),” Duque told me. “There was also an incredibly erotic scene of the first time they had sex but that was pulled from YouTube.” A clip of one of the actors discussing his character’s coming out was aired this week as the Argentine Senate debated the gay marriage bill.

Here is a kissing scene that apparently had people talking:

You can more scenes from the soap opera on Duque’s blog. Here is a great quote from one of the actors about portraying a masculine gay man in a homophobic sport while showing some femininity: “You have to be very manly to accept masculine femininity.”

It was not long ago that Argentina was a repressive military dictatorship. Now we have NBA players supporting gay marriage and a soap opera with a gay storyline. Argentina is now ahead of the U.S. in its rights for LGBT couples. The world is changing.

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“You have to remember these men are out there in their underwear, in their shorts. These aren’t like the old days but they are pretty scantily clad, and they are, you know, in front of their fans. If you’re at all self-conscious, there you are.”

Yes, when you think of shy and intimidated, you first thing of NBA players. And “underwear” and “scantily clad” are not what I associate with NBA uniforms.

This is basketball in underwear:

This is the Lakers’ uniforms today:

In the 1980s:

In the 1960s:

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Celtics win on a last-second shot from Glen ‘Big Baby’ Davis (right). Yes, you read that right.

Edited for correction.

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And then there was the pathetic display at the Wachovia Center last night, with the Orlando Magic finishing off the Philadelphia 76ers in six games with a 114-89 rout. Before the game all the talk was about how the absence of Dwight Howard (one-game suspension due to an elbowing incident) and Courtney Lee (injured by another Howard elbow, albeit not on purpose) would give the Sixers a strong chance to force a game 7. And then the game started.

(Permit me a little comic book geek interlude here. If Dwight Howard is Superman, the Sixers weren’t exactly Lex Luthor or General Zod, as in “Kneel before…” and they had no kryptonite. They were more like Mr. Myxzptlk, the imp from the fifth dimension who was always tricked into saying his name backwards, thus triggering his return to his own dimension. But in this case, instead of Superman, the Sixers were defeated by a bunch of Jimmy Olsens. Okay, end of geek interlude.)

Meanwhile, check out what 76er Andre Iguodala had to say after the game…

As the Sixers’ spokesman, its face, Andre Iguodala figures he should have input.

As the team’s general manager, Ed Stefanski better get ready to listen.

“We could have been a 50-win team,” Iguodala said last night after the Sixers lost Game 6, 114-89, and their Eastern Conference quarterfinal to the Magic, their second six-game, first-round playoff loss in as many seasons.

His solution?

“Moves. It’s going to be a busy summer,” Iguodala said. “I’m going to sit down with Ed and discuss what I think will get us over the [hump].”

Again, I have to provide the disclaimer that I’m not really a fan of the NBA, but from what I’ve casually observed, if Andre Iguodala has some thoughts, he should really look in the mirror first. He’s one of the most overrated and way overpaid players in the league. Why the Sixers signed him to a huge contract extension is beyond comprehension. And now he wants to play GM? We’re not talking Michael Jordan or Magic Johnson here.

This is a prime example of exactly what’s wrong with the NBA now. The huge contracts given Iguodala, Samuel Dalembert (another waste of money) and Elton Brand (who barely showed up before a shoulder injury ended his season, and even when he played he didn’t do much) ruin the team salary cap-wise, even after finally getting some cap room by ridding themselves of the likes of Allen Iverson and Chris Webber. How can they make this team much stronger without signing free agents or getting lottery picks? A team that hovers around .500 and squeaks into the playoffs, only to be easily dismissed in the opening round, is no fun if there’s no hope for future improvement.

All I can say is I’m glad I’m not a big basketball fan and was watching other stuff instead last night. Those people who are hardcore Sixers fans are pretty apoplectic — about the game, the players, the coach, the GM, everything. I’ve mentioned in the past how attendance has been dropping in the post-Iverson era. Three 2009 playoff games — no sellouts. The fans who stayed to the end last night reportedly booed their lungs out. If the 76ers think they had trouble selling tickets this season, just wait.

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As one of the best of the best, the cream of the crop, you are probably a finely tuned machine both physically and mentally. You are focused on the job at hand — so much so that there’s only one thing on your mind when there’s a break in the action: grabbing your mobile phone to post a message (consisting of no more than 140 characters) to family, friends and strangers alike on a website.

You may have noticed that sports and Twitter are becoming increasingly intertwined. Sports leagues, teams, individual athletes, media outlets (including Outsports — blatant plug alert!), all are establishing themselves on the popular social networking site. Lance Armstrong posted updates on his broken collarbone and subsequent surgery. Shaquille O’Neal posts often, even going so far as to give tickets away to the first Twitter follower to find him out and about in Phoenix.

But Milwaukee Bucks forward Charlie Villanueva took it to a new level. For Charlie, halftime isn’t just a time to rest up and prepare for the second half. It’s a time to feed the Twitter beast, as he did a couple of weeks ago: “In da locker room, snuck to post my twitt. We’re playing the Celtics, tie ball game at da half. Coach wants more toughness. I gotta step up.”

Uh, yeah. Head coach Scott Skiles told Villanueva, and the rest of the team, that in-game Tweets would not be tolerated. (Tweets are what they call Twitter posts for some reason; shouldn’t they be called Twits? Seems more appropriate to me.) On the next game day, Villanueva posted again, but well before that night’s game: “About to take my nap, but I’m looking for some answers here, what’s the difference between halftime twitting and halftime interview?”

FYI, Charlie: one is officially part of your job. The other is something you do on your own time.

Anyway, Shaq responded by Tweeting that he’d also Tweet at halftime: “Attention all twitterers I’m a tweet at halftime and not get fined like vill a new wave a whteva his name is.” And during the Suns’ March 21 game, a solitary word appeared on his Twitter page: “Shhhhhhh.”

I guess Suns coach Alvin Gentry isn’t as concerned as Skiles, but maybe he should be: the Suns are 4 games out of the last Western Conference playoff spot.

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Far be it from any person on this blog to make any kind of accusations or allegations about anyone’s sexuality, but some questions abound about the accuser and his own credibility.  Not the least of which is David Kuchinsky’s own prior record for burglary and resisting arrest. And before anyone goes flying off the handle, no, I don’t think any of that should add or subtract to the legitimacy of Kuchinsky’s claims.  But to say they won’t… well, that’s just living in Isiah Thomas’ Fantasyland where the Knicks are seven-time defending champs.

This is actually just another note in what has turned out to be a monumentally disastrous trade for the Knicks which sent Mike Sweetney, Jermaine Jackson, and Tim Thomas and a 1st round pick (that ended up being #2 overall) after he had been diagnosed with a heart condition and with a history of knee injuries.  And then gave him a gigantic contract to top it all off.

Just another black eye for a team that wants to avoid bad PR at any cost.

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