As I matured throughout my life, and by matured I mean sprouted hair in all the wrong places, I grew to appreciate the subtleties of accomplishment. Certain amounts of skill, time, and effort need to coagulate to manifest something truly special. For example, to truly understand math, you had to perform as much chalkboard calculus as John Nash and Will Hunting, otherwise you were a schmuck poser.
Sports always seemed on the cutting edge to me, especially considering how much SportsCenter I watched. Technology was always improving to enhance the games, whether it be new HD cameras or pinpoint replay accuracy, and the sports leagues were always adapting to these changes, either right with the times or ahead of the times. Therefore, they were going the extra mile to reach the pinnacle of entertainment. I always trusted the sports world, and the outlets that cover it, to be the Universal Soldier of progressiveness. This week, I found out I was greatly mistaken.
A story was published a few days ago about Rick Welts, the president and CEO of the Phoenix Suns, coming out as homosexual, which is the first time a person in the front office of a major professional sports franchise has actually done that. It made sense when I heard it, but then I had a Lewis Black "brain melting into my shoes" moment; in the year 2011, there hasn't been one instance of someone revealing their sexual identity publicly in sports, at least at the executive level. I mean, in ancient Greece and Rome, they would have public trysts with open, homosexual acts displayed for everyone to see. No one thought it was odd, and that was over 2500 years ago. However, this story has managed to garner a lot of intrigue because of the courage and truthfulness of Mr. Welts, coming out in a world where suppression is protection. Homosexuality would be deemed as a weakness, as a tipping point for perception to swing negatively against whoever stood up to reveal their true self.
Magic Johnson made his famous HIV announcement in 1991 that forced his retirement from professional basketball. When the media circus pitched their tents, the first thought that penetrated people's minds was that the 5-time NBA champion must have engaged in sexual congress with another male since our shallow knowledge of HIV and AIDS stated those diseases are carried in homosexual males and passed through intercourse. Magic wanted to make sure he was not labeled as "gay" or "bisexual", (I only put those terms in quotes because I imagine when Magic did interviews, he put them in quotations.) so he did the press junket and said firmly that he was straight, and people would cheer, relieved that their hopes about their basketball icon and hero were true. They were cheering for their "manly" 6'8" PG who liked women, and only women.
I'm not chastising Magic for making sure people knew he was straight, since we now know women can carry HIV and AIDS as well and he probably wasn't lying. He was being honest, but his opinion about what being gay means was a little archaic, or maybe not because like I said, people accepted homosexuality in ancient times. I guess he was being too 80's, too caught up in how people ostracized gay men for their supposed pandemic. The public was afraid of homosexuals, and homosexuals were afraid of the public. Magic probably felt the same way, even going so far as to have a falling out with Isaiah Thomas after Magic almost punched Isaiah in the face for an attempted kiss. Magic has done a lot to progress HIV and AIDS research over the last 20 years, but never did anything to help progress the plight of homosexuals.
As we jump back up to 88 and park the DeLorean in 2011, it seems silly that a 3 word sentence, a sentence millions of others have expressed out in public and millions more will say in the future, can generate this much media attention. We now have multiple articles about Mr. Welts and Will Sheridan, a former Villanova basketball standout, citing their own experiences with being gay in their respective sports positions, we have smart-story reporter Jeremy Schaap doing an exclusive interview with Rick Welts and even a Bill Simmons podcast tackles the subject. Reporters are asking NBA players, current and retired, about homosexual teammates and their own opinions, highlighted by Charles Barkley claiming the perception of professional athletics being extremely homophobic is crazy. This story continues to have legs, and in this modern society, it really should have just come and gone. I admire these men for being true to themselves, but it's a truth many people live with and openly acknowledge. MTV had many specials run through the 90's and 2000's about gay men and women dealing with the struggle of telling their families and friends about who they actually were, and after the seventeenth one, I figured the idea of telling people that secret wasn't a big deal anymore. I thought in a progressive world like sports and entertainment, no one would really care, or not care enough to give it massive coverage. I was wrong, and my general opinion about sports has been altered.
Eminem asked "Won't the Real Slim Shady please stand up?" in 2000 and had a number 1 hit. Rick Welts did just that and inspired gay men in not just sports, but all facets of life. Unfortunately, professional sports and sports media really stood up during this last week of coverage, and I lost some respect for both of them.
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