fbpx
Politics Foreign Affairs Culture Fellows Program

A Bigot Under Every Basketball

You can always depend on The New York Times, bless its heart. Here is a Harvey Araton column about the fact that Jason Collins, the gay NBA player whose cause he once ballyhooed, can’t get a job. Excerpt: The question Collins has to ponder is why he has not been signed as a free agent. […]

You can always depend on The New York Times, bless its heart. Here is a Harvey Araton column about the fact that Jason Collins, the gay NBA player whose cause he once ballyhooed, can’t get a job. Excerpt:

The question Collins has to ponder is why he has not been signed as a free agent. Is it because he is at best a marginal player with modest career statistics (3.6 points and 3.8 rebounds a game) nearing the end of his career, one who would cost more than a younger player based on the league’s collectively bargained pay scale? Or is there something more sinister at work related to the new role he would play?

:::::::Twiddles Snidely Whiplash mustache::::::::

Well, he’s aging, his stats aren’t great, and according to league rules, a player with his experience has to be paid $1.4 million annually — three times the salary of a younger player. Coming out may have been a last-ditch effort to save a sputtering career. From the column:

Another advocate for gay athletes, Hudson Taylor, the executive director of Athlete Ally, wrote in an e-mail: “The decision to sign him rests with individual team owners. One of them has to step up.”

Really? Why? Why should a team owner throw a million and a half dollars at a “marginal at best” player who is at the tail end of an undistinguished career? Because of LGBTokenism? This is progress?

Advertisement

Comments

Want to join the conversation?

Subscribe for as little as $5/mo to start commenting on Rod’s blog.

Join Now