Kobe Bryant Calls a Ref a “Fucking Faggot” on Television

For those of you that missed it, during Tuesday night’s game against the Spurs, Kobe Bryant was sent to the bench after receiving a technical foul. Pissed about the incident, Kobe screamed what was first reported by Sports Illustrated as simply a “slur” at referee Bennie Adams, with the NBA subsequently slapping Bryant with a $100,000 fine. Given my love of hate speech and the fact that initial reports were more afraid to say the word in question than a goddamn fourth grader in front of a mirror playing “Bloody Mary,” I tried to figure out best I could just what Kobe said. My logic went something like this:


“Well, Adams isn’t a Latino name, so he didn’t say beaner or spic. And if he called a black guy a nigger, I don’t think it really counts, even with the “er” ending. So did he call some white guy a cracker-ass cracker? I mean, I don’t think there are any Native American referees he could have called injun. This isn’t One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”


So I Googled Bennie Adams and, turns out, he’s a black dude, leaving me puzzled. Was there some new slur black people used against other black people that I’d been left out of the loop on? I started to panic that my knowledge of bigotry had grown outmoded, but, thankfully, a few other news outlets with some cojones finally reported that Kobe had called Bennie a “fucking faggot” (that links to video of the incident, not Lemon Party, so relax).


So why am I writing about this? Because I think the fine is bullshit. Sports are homophobic as all Hell. If you, as an athlete, come out as gay, a bunch of muscular guys are going to find you in the locker room and pound the shit out of you. (It almost sounds like a wish granted to a homosexual by a genie who likes messing with people for not being specific enough.) Fining a guy with millions of dollars when he’s caught on camera calling someone a faggot but not attempting to change the culture of homophobia in the league (which, admittedly, I have no clue how to go about doing) reeks of disingenuousness. If NBA Commissioner David Stern actually wanted to make a statement, he should plop Kobe on some pride parade float. It’d send a much stronger message, plus the amount of ball busting Kobe would receive for it would guarantee no one is calling anyone a faggot in that league ever again.

On the other hand, anti-gay slurs fall in a unique category where, so much of the time, they are used as a blanket insult, not specifically to call someone’s sexuality in question. For example, back in my less-enlightened days, I might have told my dog to “Quit being a faggot and come inside.” I wasn’t insinuating my dog was gay. I didn’t look outside and catch her scissoring the terrier next door. I was just frustrated with waiting for her to drop a deuce. My words, while insensitive and ineloquent, at least made some sense, while screaming something along the lines of “Hurry up, you chink motherfucker,” at my dog wouldn’t.


I doubt Kobe would have called Bennie Adams a faggot if he actually thought Bennie was gay (rapists are notoriously diplomatic); he was just angry and probably doesn’t have the greatest vocabulary (that was an “athletes are dumb” stereotype, not a “blacks are dumb” stereotype). Still, there was a time in this country where a player probably could have screamed “nigger” at Bennie and applied a similar logic. Even if you’re not leveling it at a gay person, the next time you want to say “faggot,” I think it’s time to go with another word.