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Amar'e Stoudemire badly jokes that he'd 'take a different route to the gym' if he had a gay teammate
This feels like something out of 1998, because especially in the world of current or ex-NBA athletes this sort of thing seems awfully dated, and not in a good way. Call the guy that just rescued a Windows 98-era system on his laptop in order to scan the internet, because this story is for him.
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Amar’e Stoudemire, former NBA All-Star and current forward on the Hapoel Jerusalem squad in the Israeli League, was recently asked on camera if he’d have an issue with a gay teammate. Weirdly presuming that the 33-year old somehow made it 14 NBA seasons and an international basketball campaign without sharing a locker room with a gay basketball player:
For those that don’t care to click, here’s Stoudemire’s reaction (as transcribed by Daniel Popper at the New York Daily News):
“I’m going to shower across the street, make sure my change of clothes are around the corner,” Stoudemire said, “and I’m going to drive (and) take a different route to the gym.”
The journalist then asks Stoudemire if he’s joking.
“There’s always a truth within a joke,” he responded.
Killer joke, Amar’e. Do realize that John Rocker is not a bad punch line because of his words, at least not these days, but because he as a person has become an irrelevant joke. This wouldn’t matter so much if we weren’t trying to put these last few oil fires out.
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Stoudemire, averages over 10 points and five boards for his club, recently received Hapoel Jerusalem’s Martin Luther King Jr. Award for the contributions he and his wife Alexis have made via their Alexis and Amar’e Foundation, which specializes in education:
“Amar’e Stoudemire has spearheaded many initiatives that empower the less fortunate and advance important principles like tolerance, peace, creativity and healthy living,” Consul General of Israel in New York Ambassador Dani Dayan added in the release.
“His life commitments are in step with the values of the State of Israel and those preached by Dr. King himself… We treasure Dr. King’s belief in the significance of the relationship between the African-American and Jewish communities, as we continue to fight together against hatred and xenophobia.”
Perhaps Amar’e should get down to work on another type of phobia, one revealed by the little truth behind his lame joke about avoiding working alongside the (apparently expectedly, as the stereotype goes, outwardly lascivious) guy that in real life just wants to play basketball for a living.
This isn’t Amar’e Stoudemire’s first time in sharing some sufficiently dumb comments.
You’ll probably recall Stoudemire’s first brush with acting rather thick in this realm. He’s still the same guy that sent a Twitter direct message to a trolling fan that included a homophobic slur, netting him a $50,000 fine from the NBA and reminding us that, hey, maybe we shouldn’t be using that word all the way up here in 2012.
Here we are in 2017, when this feels like even more of a chore to detail. This sort of stuff was never funny, it was never right, and it also sufficiently clouds the sort of illumination that Amar’e had helped to encourage through his work with his award-winning Foundation.
It currently clouds it, should Stoudemire continue to work with this mindset. Because, apparently, his apology from 2012 wasn’t worth a lick:
“I am a huge supporter of civil rights for all people. I am disappointed in myself for my statement to a fan. I should have known better and there is no excuse.”
Try that again?
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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at KDonhoops@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
