Amaechi's Admission A Non-Story

John Amaechi's admission that he's gay is laughable if you think that this is some sort of real revelation.

Amaechi, the former NBAer who has come out of the closet to promote his new book, apparently wants us to believe that the idea of a homosexual athlete is shocking in some way.

HA!

Now, what I'm about to say has no hard facts to support it, and is therefore strictly a hunch -- but a strong one. Homosexuals have been players on professional (and college, and even high school) sports teams for eons -- probably since the dawn of sports.

Charles Barkley, last night on TNT, casually said that he's played with known gay players. And, Barkley said, it didn't matter to him what a dude's sexual preference was, as long as they guy could play. I wasn't able to glean whether Barkley made the comment based on fact/someone's admission, or if he believes the odds are so strong that he has played with a gay player, that it might as well be fact. Regardless, his point was consistent: it just doesn't matter.

Former Redskins receiver Jerry Smith and baseball player Billy Bean are just two from other sports that have felt it incumbent upon themselves to reveal their sexual orientation. Why, I'm not sure. But it would be incredibly myopic to think that these men are isolated cases. But the bottom line is the same: as long as others were either unaware or not made uncomfortable by this trait, then whose business is it, really?

The real story, I believe, is if someone were to come out with credible evidence that an openly gay player made unwelcome advances on a teammate, even after being told not to do it. And even that's an incident between those two people -- but it would be more newsworthy. I think it would be, anyway.

Amaechi was certainly not a star in the league (he averaged about 6 PPG in five seasons), and maybe that's yet another reason to merit this story as being mostly a non-story. But again, if a teammate of Amaechi's unearthed stories of physical touching and groping that was the equivalent of sexual harrassment, then that's a whole new can of worms, regardless if he was a star or not.

Just about every heterosexual man, no matter the workplace/school/circle of friends, has encountered gay men in these venues without his knowledge. This is because someone's sexual orientation is nobody else's business, as long as it's kept to themselves and not done to intimidate or make coworkers uncomfy. Like the heterosexual harrassers have taken to doing time and again.

John Amaechi, ex-NBA player, is gay?

And the significance of this is ...?