Buck Harvey: Next issue: In the wake of Snickers
Web Posted: 02/08/2007 12:02 AM CST
San Antonio Express-News
The auto mechanics moved toward each other on Super Bowl Sunday, chewy bite of caramel and peanuts after chewy bite, until the men lip locked. Naturally, each had to rip a handful of hair from his chest to restore male normalcy.
Nothing defines America’s sexual mores like a Snickers ad.
And nothing better explains why a minor name will become a major story this month. An Englishman named John Amaechi says he’s gay, and, among his former workers, that’s different and worthy of angst.
NBA players, after all, are better known for shooting their weapons outside of Indianapolis strip clubs.
Amaechi has written a book to be released this month, and that’s just like him. To quote past stories, Amaechi is “a poet, a lover of the arts and a humanitarian.”
He played for the Orlando Magic then, and his English accent set him apart. His taste did, too; he drank Earl Grey in the locker room.
The Orlando newspaper responded by printing a regular feature called “Tea with Meech.” Sometimes, Meech would contribute poetry, and most everyone liked him.
Amaechi was also a surprisingly effective player. For example: Few questioned the Magic when they gave up Ben Wallace instead of Amaechi in the trade for Grant Hill in 2000.
That same summer, Orlando had tried to steal Tim Duncan. When he chose to stay in San Antonio, the Magic added Hill and Tracy McGrady, but the franchise still needed a big man.
Orlando was desperate to keep Amaechi, but, because of his contractual status, he could receive only a one-year deal worth about $600,000 from the Magic. The champion Lakers bid more. They offered Amaechi a $14 million contract and told him he would start next to Shaquille O’Neal.
Then Amaechi showed his outrageous financial orientation. “Against the counsel of my agent, sisters and best friend,” he said then, “I’m re-signing because I think the Magic need me more than the Lakers.”
There was more to it, since Amaechi could have earned even more the next summer from Orlando. Besides, with the Magic, he would be more involved than he would be playing a role with the Lakers.
But it was still a decision made partly from the heart, which is why what followed was so painful. He struggled the next season, exposed as an awful rebounder for a 6-foot-10 center, and the Magic didn’t want him.
He’d gone through his money, left with only $8,000 to his name, but he had excuses. He built a gym for kids in his native England. He supported a sister. And then there were the two at-risk teens he adopted.
Different, all right.
Amaechi would get his money, an $11 million offer from the Jazz, but there he would run into a crowd not wanting “Tea with Meech.” Amaechi now calls Jazz owner Larry Miller a “bigot” and said Karl Malone was a xenophobe.
Jerry Sloan, Amaechi said, “hated” him. Amaechi says he was beginning to be more open then about his sexuality, so perhaps the franchise was reacting.
This is the undercurrent of homophobia that current NBA officials and players think still exists. Some wonder if an openly gay man would be accepted in this league in a decade.
A mature group such as the Spurs would likely be as open-minded as Amaechi says Andrei Kirilenko was in Utah. But there’s potential for abuse elsewhere, and Amaechi understands that.
Years ago, during a Christmas Day game, Amaechi said fans crossed the line when yelling at him about his mother who had died not long before. Had they known he was gay, would the crowd have been less merciless?
Going by the percentages of society, there have probably been several hundred gay men in the history of the NBA. Eventually, an active player will cross this same line, and there will be a firestorm, and things will be said.
Eventually, this will come to pass as other issues have. Eventually, this will be as accepted as Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith were on Sunday.
Until then?
There will be these Snickers moments.