The Kobe Bryant Apology Tour continued yesterday, after the N.B.A. star was fined $100,000 for mouthing an obscene homophobic slur at a referee earlier this week. Bryant made a public apology Wednesday, and also personally called the president of the Human Rights Campaign to apologize some more. But Bryant, who has some experience with handling bad PR, took a more forceful stance today, and vowed to eradicate the word from the english language: "It's about getting that message out there man, to kill that word. Just don't use it, just don't use it. And hopefully others can learn from the situation that occured and just knock that word out completely," he said on the Dan Patrick Show.
Bryant was given a technical foul midway through the Lakers-Spurs game on Tuesday night, and could be seen on camera angrily yelling at ref Bennie Adams; he seems to have called him a “f**king f****t.” Some were angry that in his initial apology, Bryant apologized without confronting the issue of the word. But Bryant's vow on the Dan Patrick Show wasn't his only public mea culpa today: the Lakers and the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) announced a working relationship. Lakers spokesman John Black said:
What happened in Tuesday night's game is not representative of what the Lakers stand for. We want to reaffirm our commitment to all our fans and our appreciation for the support we receive from all segments of society...We appreciate the input we've received from GLAAD the past two days and will look forward to working with them on ways to help educate ourselves and our fans, and to help keep language like this out of our game.
While most people sounded satisfied with Bryant's apologies, some are upset that he is still trying to fight his fine. John Amaechi, a former N.B.A. center who came out of the closet in 2007, wrote in the Times that he "doesn't think Kobe Bryant is some vicious homophobe, but, I do think he made a mistake and has sounded more like a squirming politician than a national hero since the incident came to light." He advised him that instead of fighting the fine (which may turn out to be more than is technically permissible), which he deserved, he should turn his attention toward gay and lesbian Lakers fans: "You spoke ill-advised words that shot out like bullets, and if the e-mails I received from straight and gay young people and sports fans in Los Angeles alone are anything to go by, you did serious damage with your outburst."
But while Bryant was fined $100,000 for his outburst, Lakers Coach Phil Jackson incurred $150,000 in penalties for invoking a different word, one that is considered much worse, much more taboo, in the basketball world: "lockout."
