As gay rights group calls him ‘a disgrace’, Kobe apologizes, sort of
What do we think: momentary Tourette’s, or hateful scumbag?
Childish jock?
No chance he was suggesting the ref was as useful at his job as a bundle of sticks?
Guess I’ll have to say egotistical jerk who’s gotten away w/ every mistake he’s ever made being forgiven already and this will be no different. No matter the fine, it will be a pittance compared to his personal fortune and it’s doubtful enough fans disagree w/ him to make a dent in lost viewership for the NBA.
Si. His on-court accomplishments are, I grudgingly admit, stratospheric, but I have a hard time ranking him along the all-time greats. Perhaps I’m closed-minded.
Perhaps it’s time for you to come out of the closed.
What the fuck does that mean?
It was a funny joke that riffed on your use of the word “closed” and the homophobia of the subject of the OP.
Oh. Nah, it wasn’t funny. You’d need Larry Craig for that.
“We” think he got pissy and said something stupid, so it’s neither. Tourette’s makes it sound like he did something by accident, and hateful scumbag makes assumptions about his views that are not supported by other information.
I remember being about 13 and resolving never to call anybody a faggot again when I realized what a disgusting slur it was. But to be honest I have a hard time getting worked up over this. If you’ve paid any attention to Kobe Bryant, the three things you know about him are that he’s an amazing player, that he’s obsessed with winning, and that he’s basically a dick. So hearing that he called a referee a faggot does not exactly challenge my views about him. I also don’t think he’s anything close to the first NBA player to do this, which doesn’t make it OK but it does make it tough to get on board with what I expect to be an impending wave of recrimination against Kobe. It’s a stupid, regrettable part of jock culture and that’s the bigger issue.
That being said it’s not like I could or would defend what he said. Bitching at the refs is a spoiled, shitty thing to do and there’s no defense for calling anybody a slur like this.
I prefer jjimm’s version.
Meh, much ado about nothing.
Calling people “fag” is wrong and insensitive, but it’s not a hate crime. I understand why people have an issue with it, but the outrage is overblown. 90% of the people who use the term make next to no connection to sexuality when doing so. Using that word makes you immature, it doesn’t make you a homophobe.
wow are people really so sensitive about these things. I can’t believe a pro athlete would call someone a name
I agree. Growing up that term was used derisively towards others not because of any implied lack of macho-ism or as a direct accusation of homosexuality, but as an alternate meaning for what essentially means “you’re so stupid” or “you are gay” for saying/proposing/thinking out loud about something that your peers thought was lame.
“Steers and queers” anyone?
Oops, I guess I better watch my step.
Might get the HRC, the ACLU, AI, and every other PC-do-goodytwoshoes out for my blood.
I don’t think it’s a big deal. Immature and undisciplined, yes - a calculated slur on gay people, no. Maybe things are different with the latest generation, but in my experience, like 90% of the time that guys use that word, it’s against non-homosexuals and isn’t intended any more literally than “motherfucker” or “son of a bitch.” It’s just an abstract profanity.
The NBA hit Bryant with a $100,000 fine. I expected a fine of maybe $30,000 and maybe a charitable donation and an apology. I’m OK with this as a resolution. A suspension (particularly of a playoff game) would have been overkill and a non-response would have made the league look bad. I’d say the NBA handled this well. A $100,000 fine doesn’t really matter to Kobe but it looks substantial and there’s no way to really hit him with a fine that matters.
I disagree except for the part about it not being a hate crime. Kobe’s not a 14 year old boy, he DOES know the word is specifically and has always been applied to gay men. And I beg to differ that ‘faggot’ doesn’t have any connection to gays- that’s exactly what it means and what it’s always meant since I’ve been alive and I’m older than Kobe. A few words may have lost their former connections- “bitch” may be a unisex slur now with no real gender connotations (once Bob Barker’s used it in a movie it’s mainstream) or even ‘cocksucker’ which was reborn a bit by Deadwood, but faggot is still spendable currency as a gay slur. When I’ve been called that word, and I have, I can absofuckinglutely assure you that it was very gay specific, and I think most gays would agree with me. When you read about bullied gay youth, it’s consistently and without exception what they were called and it’s very gay specific.
Had Kobe called the referee an asshole or a shithead or a fuckwad or a motherfucker or a cocksucker or a bitch, that’s losing your temper and saying something you shouldn’t but not really connected to anything offensive to a group. Instead he calls him a still currently used everyday to bully kids all over the country (some of them gay, some suspected of being gays, some being ‘jokingly’ equated with gays) and because evidently it’s the worst thing he can think of at the moment. He also does this knowing he’s a role model to black youth- he’s referred to himself as such- and knowing that the black community as a whole (major exceptions on the individual level of course) has major homophobic baggage that will only be reinforced by this.
How do you think Kobe would react if a white player called the ref a “Fucking nigger” do you suppose, and then claimed “It’s not how I feel about black people, who I think are absolutely wonderful, it’s just something I heard once while listening to a party album at my good friend Spike Lee’s house”? My guess is he’d want him crucified. Even if he’d called a black ref “boy” or something far less incendiary, it would be all over the damned news until Charlie Sheen exposes himself to a nun or whatever. ‘Faggot’ is the gay ‘nigger’. Ask a gay black guy sometime if he’s been called both and if so is either word any less insulting than the other.
I think Kobe knew what he was saying and while he wasn’t calling the ref gay probably it’s no different than if he’d called him a dirty kike and then said “Oh, I love Jews!” I hope that asshole shithead fuckwad motherfucker lives long enough to see his mansions foreclosed on and the IRS perform an anal probe for stashed valuables that makes the bitch miss his bus and consequently get his ass chewed out by boss Evander Holyfield for being late to work for his job as graveyard shift greeter at the ‘DIDN’T YOU USED TO BE?’ HOTEL & CASINO. Which is owned by Mel Gibson.
Sampiro, you’re definitely letting your own personal experiences color your opinion here. It’s an awful thing to say, and just like some other examples you and others have come up with, when said to the wrong person it can be deeply offensive. Understandably so. But that doesn’t change the fact that it has become, in most circles and especially in mine growing up, a standard issue insult with no meaning whatsoever (and I’m younger than Kobe). It’s just hard to see that when you attribute so much meaning to the word.
Maybe you feel differently when it’s used against you, or has a deeper, more painful meaning. But he didn’t say it to you. And I don’t think he meant it as a slur against a group of people. So getting worked up about this when you are anyone but the ref the insult was directed to is a bit of a waste of time. A treasure hunt to getting offended, in my view. But I haven’t had your experiences, so I can disassociate with the ugliness of the word and understand exactly why it was used.
I can guarantee you it had nothing to do with sexuality, and it had everything to do with ugliness. It’s an ugly word, and it was used to describe and release an ugly emotion. I don’t like Kobe, at all, but I still believe him in this case, because that ugly emotion (which is not at all homophobic) is something I can understand.
Good.
Is that income still taxable, or can he write it off?
I think it’s taken out of his salary, so he doesn’t get the income in the first place. But I’m not positive about that.
We’re not going to solve the “gay = stupid” argument here (we’ve done it before), but I will say I don’t really buy into that line of thinking and even if you do, I don’t Kobe comes off any better.