Posted on 04/13/2011 5:45:53 PM PDT by workerbee
The NBA fined Kobe Bryant $100,000 on Wednesday for using a derogatory gay term in frustration over a referee's call.
NBA Commissioner David Stern issued a swift disciplinary ruling after the Los Angeles Lakers' five-time NBA champion guard cursed and used the homophobic slur when referee Bennie Adams called a technical foul on him Tuesday night in the third quarter of a victory over the San Antonio Spurs.
''Kobe Bryant's comment during last night's game was offensive and inexcusable,'' Stern said. ''While I'm fully aware that basketball is an emotional game, such a distasteful term should never be tolerated. ... Kobe and everyone associated with the NBA know that insensitive or derogatory comments are not acceptable and have no place in our game or society.''
Stern's action drew praise from gay-rights organizations that had demanded a fuller apology from Bryant and condemnation of his words by the Lakers. Bryant, the sixth-leading scorer in NBA history, issued a statement earlier Wednesday saying his words came strictly out of anger and shouldn't be taken literally.
''We applaud Commissioner Stern and the NBA for not only fining Bryant but for recognizing that slurs and derogatory comments have no place on the basketball court or in society at large,'' Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese said. ''We hope such swift and decisive action will send a strong and universal message that this kind of hateful outburst is simply inexcusable no matter what the context.''
***
''What I said last night should not be taken literally. My actions were out of frustration during the heat of the game, period,'' Bryant said in a statement issued through the Lakers. ''The words expressed do NOT reflect my feelings towards the gay and lesbian communities and were NOT meant to offend anyone.''
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.foxsports.com ...
Notice how delicately the article tiptoes around ‘the word’. Daring not even mention what was said. It is now an unspeakable word. 100 years from now, the human race will be rendered mute as the list of unmentionable words stacks up and everything offends someone somewhere.
Of course, what he should have called the official is a ‘tea-bagger’. That seems to be totally acceptable speech today.
sportsguy33 Bill Simmons
RT @TheCousinSal: Breaking news: Kobe just bought Perez Hilton a $4 million tennis bracelet. It’s all good now.
That’s what Brits call cigarettes, I believe.
 Oh, come on! What was it I said? Rump ranger? Butt Pirate? Anal Ninja? Doo-doo monkey? Arse bandit? Bumhole engineer? Rectum spelunker? WHAT?! |
If you want off my ping list get over it!
You’re right.
It’s all so totally gay.
Did he call him a “fanny bandit”?
Faggies rule!
Or do they prefer t*rdburglar?
Sick of these sickos!
I think he called him a sausage smuggler.
If this involved Bryant and another player, I'd say the league would have overstepped its bounds if it came down on him.
For all you sports fans out there who don't know hockey well, here is a good example of why it is the best, most un-PC sport in so many ways (for mature audiences only):
Get off the f#%&ing ice, you f@&&ot! . . . You lay on the ice like a broad, Bellows!
What’s the matter - the ref get his little pink panties in a twist?
ROTFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Talk about a “full court press” from the Penguins bench...
Hehehehe...they coulda raised a few million in fines there by today’s standards!!!!!
It’s really hard to discuss this issue here, considering the forum rules on profanity. The media says something about a sports figure mumbling something about a peter-puffing, butt-pirate so-and-so, so who knows?
I've seen/heard more hysterical and creative trash-talking in one hockey game than I've heard in a decade's worth of any other sport.
Since you mentioned hockey, time to get in a plug for my fave website:
www.hockeyfights.com
You won’t be disappointed. Also go to youtube and keyword `hockey fights’. When the gloves come off, the fight’s on and the refs don’t interfere until one combatant hits the ice. No PC pussyfooting in the NHL though I read that every team has its designated fighters.
Seriously, that made me laugh out loud...that’s hockey!
I played hockey for about 15 years (goalie) and I had what was kind of a funny experience in the last couple of years when I was playing in a men’s league… we had a playoff game against a team from Boston, and these guys were total jerks. When I play, I’m not one of those people who gets in the face of the other team or trash talks… it just isn’t my style. I don’t like it, I’ve never liked it. I’m just not one of those people who likes to rub their opponents face in the dirt.
Anyway, in this game they beat us pretty badly, as our entire team was fairly well outmatched. But every time they scored a goal, one or two of them would skate up to me, put their cages in my face, scream at me and yell things like “RED LIGHT!” As a goalie, you have to get used to that kind of thing, because sometimes that’s just the way it is. But these guys got me going in a slow boil, and by the end of the game, I was steaming. The next week, the other team came back to the same rink for the next round of the playoffs. A bunch of us from my team went down there to watch, and we yelled at them pretty boisterously from the stands. This is a man’s league, so it’s not like it was kids, women or even much of anybody there watching at 11 o’clock at night. Well, we torture the crap out of them, me much more so than anyone else. I was up in the stands, and every time the opposing team came down the ice, I would bellow at the top of my lungs “RED LIGHT! RED LIGHT!” Well, I must’ve started getting to the goalie, and the other team started pumping the goals into the net at a pretty good clip!
At one point, their whole team was clustered around the glass on the ice, with me on the other side of the glass, with a couple of those guys trying to take whacks at me with their sticks! I love it, to see a bunch of arrogant jocks from a liberal town like Cambridge Massachusetts who could dish it out, but just couldn’t take it!
We debated sticking around in the parking lot until they came out, but being a bunch of older, married guys, we figured it wasn’t really worth getting involved in something like that… :-)
I tore up my knee playing volleyball after that season, and was never able to play hockey again after that, but it was a memorable way to go out...
Butt Pirate.
Hands down. That’s the ticket.
That’s why we call them “Massholes”.
If the shoe fits..
I wonder if he would have been fined, had he called a white referee “cracker.”
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.