Update: Speculation here and here is that the player in question is John Amaechi.
Buried in a Chicago Tribune column was this little tidbit:
Publicist Howard Bragman, from a Los Angeles-based company called Fifteen Minutes, was spreading the word at the Leigh Steinberg Super Bowl party Saturday that a former NBA player he represents will be announcing publicly that he is gay on Valentine’s Day. Bragman would say only that the player has been retired for about three years and was not a member of the Bulls or the Nets. He added that the player was not a prominent name in the NBA. The player also has a book that will be released in conjunction with his public disclosure.
So basically it’s a nobody trying to sell some books. Yawwwwwwn. It’s appropriate that the PR company representing him is called Fifteen Minutes because that’s about how long this is going to be on the radar. It’s not that the nation doesn’t care about gays in the NBA, it’s just that the nation doesn’t care about bench warmers. You know the guy at the end of the bench who is always the loudest cheerleader? If he came out and told the world he was actually the Dalai Lama, nobody would care. On the other hand, Michael Jordan could be caught buying Crab-B-Gone and it’d be in the blogosphere for days. Sorry Mr. Gay Nobody, if you didn’t average at least double digits in points a game, no one cares. Well, except maybe the homophobes at Snickers.
Links:
[ChicagoSports.com]: Manning’s dad: Don’t give up on Grossman
