There has been a lot of talk in the sport’s world recently about the potential for the NFL fining players for saying the N word.  What has received about the same amount of attention was Michael Sam announcing he was gay and trying to get drafted by an NFL team.  If he does make an NFL roster, he would be the first openly gay football player.

Jason Collins came out last year and was picked up by the New Jersey Nets on a 10 day contract.  He joked that in all his years playing in the NBA, he never had so much media coverage like he did this past week.

Normally, my posts don’t talk about topics like this, but this is a sport’s story and my mind was changed last night when I was watching TNT’s NBA pre-game show.  They were talking about these topics and then it was Charles Barkley’s turn to chime in (who has never been shy about holding back his thoughts).  He said the following (or something close to it):

“I don’t care about anybody’s race, sexual orientation, whatever, I just hate playing with people who suck at basketball.  As long as you don’t suck, I will enjoy playing with you.”

They all laughed on the set, but I think what he said is true.  If you are an athlete, especially one in a team sport, you want to play with people who have the ability to get you to a championship.

I’ve always felt that the true essence of sports helps develop an open mind to all human beings regardless of race or sexual orientation.  Now a lot of my experiences were 10, 20 years ago and dealt with race, but I have no doubt it would be the same for sexual orientation.

I’ve had people spit on me, call me names, sucker punch me during games, but if I proved that I was a worthy athlete and they saw me outside of the game somewhere there was always a level of respect.  Rarely did someone interact with me negatively.

A good athlete is a good athlete and any competitive athlete will respect that.

I still remember the time my senior year in high school I played in a Central Ohio all star basketball game.  My first practice, I only knew a couple of players and the rest of the team didn’t really know me.

During our layup line, everybody started dunking.  When I threw it down, there was a look of amazement from everybody.  C’mon, I was a little bit of an oddity.  A white guy with some hops.  Once I did that, for some reason, the players all started talking with me more and interacting.

A good coach wants to play the best players that will give their team a chance of winning.  It doesn’t matter who those players are.  If I’m playing a pickup game and I’m picking teams and I have a choice between my best friend, who can’t play a lick and probably will make it that much more difficult for us to win, or the Asian homosexual who I have seen play and will really boost our chances of winning – then I’ll buy my friend a drink later to soothe his bruised ego.

Bottom line is this.  I’ve been a white guy playing pickup ball with black guys all over Columbus and Indiana.  I’ve been a white guy playing pickup ball with Asians in Orlando.  I’ve been a white guy playing with Cubans playing pickup ball in Miami.  The theme is the same in all the cases.

If you can play and show respect to the game and your opponents, that will transcend any issues one might have with race or sexual orientation.

The people you meet through sports really opens your eyes.  You realize that people of all races and sexual orientations aren’t that much different then you.  Yes there are jerks and not everybody is like you.  Like everything else those jerks could be white, African American, Cuban, Asian, it isn’t limited to one type of human being.

But I think through sports, you have the opportunity to develop relationships with individuals you might not get the chance to do otherwise.  Really able to see the positives of these other human beings of different races and sexual orientations.  This in turn will make you a better person in the long run.

Feel free to post any comments in the comment box below.