On Kobe Bryant's Slur, And The League's Reaction To It

idk. given kobe’s ultra-competitive spirit, i am inclined to believe he said what he said out of pure anger, and did not intend to offend or degrade gays or lesbians. it’s one of the words that has been thrown around from culture to culture and unfortunately, sticks to some people’s vocabulary. not trying to make excuses for him, just saying what i think happened. anyhow, i doubt this will do anything to get people of kobe’s jock. he will still be parochially revered by many, and still passionately hated my many.

and not back to Stern’s pockets.

And where is this money going?

Yea, derogatory terms like that should not be said, but I’m positive all NBA players have said something extremely offensive while playing the game. It’s not right, but really, they might as well fine everyone 100,000.

Wow, yet another reason for others to hate Kobe’s guts. All this hate just overshadows his accomplishments. Sad, really…how the media treats him.

And technically, he has the right to say whatever he wants. I don’t think he should be fined. Weeks of negative media attention and the LBGT community angry at him is bad enough of a punishment.

A couple of points here…and for the record, I am from Miami Beach and I have know & have many gay/lesbian friends, this whole issue is ridiculous.

Kobe said something in the heat of the moment that was not engendered by the sexual orientation of the person, in question…should he have used a different term, perhaps.

But then what’s next? If you call someone a “jerk” or “bitch”, will that get you a $ 50, 000 fine??? this opens up a whole can of worms in a league, which I believe, I over regulated, to begin with, in terms of technical fouls, fines etc.

100,000 dollars is pretty steep, I mean I figured maybe the 25-50 range, at worse, if it all.

Oh, and I don’t want to get political but shouldn’t these “pro-gay” groups go after bigger fish, like governments in Iran and Cuba which truly violate, at a state level, the rights of gays and lesbians, as opposed to Kobe.

Check out the racist rhetoric being employed on Facbook on their FB page, it only shows their hypocrisy.

This is a very good read, gentlemen. Well done.

Being good friends with gays/lesbians, I did not AT ALL like the fact that he used that word to describe his anger. Don’t care if it was in the heat of the moment. I found it inappropriate to use such language.

But if Stern is going to start fining players for using offensive words, then he better apply it to EVERYONE.

…nothing more… fuck david stern…

@jeskeets

Great call, @rashad20. Michael Jordan did call Kwame Brown a gay slur once. Here’s the link; 9th graph down — http://es.pn/hgUrC5

If you’re into the politics behind sports, I HIGHLY recommend this book.

Anyway, I remember reading about something bigoted that LeBron said. It was something like he wouldn’t trust a teammate in the locker room. I don’t have the book with me, but basically what he said sounded so ignorant for who he’s supposed to be.

remember last year’s finals game 4 when big baby davis was shitting all over us? and remember going into a commercial after he had just earned an and-1, you could clearly hear nate robinson exclaim “MMYYYYYY N****!”
isn’t that a slur, too? oh wait, he didn’t mean it in that way? well, pretty sure kobe didn’t mean his in that way either. where’s the shit hitting the fan with this?

What Kobe said in the heat of the moment to criticize an official is way overblown. However, I hope it teaches him to shut up and stop complaining so much because he’s only hurting himself and his team. He should try and endear himself to the refs. If he called the ref a name, the ref is going to dislike him and tend to swallow his whistle when he gets fouled. Chances are, the refs hate Kobe and so don’t give him the calls they do other superstars who don’t berate them or call them names, ala Kevin Durant.

We don’t know why Kobe chose to use that particular word…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_F_Word_(South_Park)

Look, what Kobe said was bad. It truly was. But at the same time, its not like he’s the only NBA player who says it. People have said, say, and will say worse things. It’s just the fact that he got caught. It doesn’t justify it, but if we’re really going to make such a big deal about it, why not condemn everyone who uses such foul language? Why not mic up the entire league, and fine people who get caught. You have to either go all in or not, because just fining Kobe isn’t going to stop this. It’ll stop him, but not the entire NBA.

i think everyone shoulda moved on after he owned up to it…
whats getting to me is how the nba determines whats derogatory.. other players i’m sure have said worse and didnt get fined. 100k is outrageous.. nba should just list the words they dont want getting said on court.

some women call each other Bs and Hs, but that does not make it ok for men to or for women outside of that community of women to.

some men call each other A-holes and pricks and bastards and dicks and an assortment of other things, but that does not make it ok for people outside of that community of men to call them those things. They may let it go, but it will certainly initially make them uncomfortable or angry to be called that by someone they do not know or communicate with regularly.

some gay men may call each other the ‘F’ word, but that doesn’t mean women, men, or anyone outside of their group could call them that and they would just understand what that person meant.

some hispanics call each other the ‘S’ word, but that doesn’t mean that they’d take it kindly if others called them that.

Point being, every group on this Earth has words that offend them, but very few are words that can actually translate into everyday language as a regular term. The ‘N’ word used to just be a normal term to refer to dark-skinned folk based off of the translation of black in Spanish, but that doesn’t mean that everyone who uses it was meaning it in that context. Something can be offensive without being directly acted at others. If a white person back in the heyday of slavery was called the ‘N’ word it would be highly offensive to them. We just had the whole incident with Jalen Rose calling Duke players ‘Uncle Toms.’ Words can be incendiary especially when used in a negative tone. We need to stop acting as if Kobe was having a jovial conversation between him and the ref that happens everyday. It doesn’t. It was used out of anger to describe the man in a negative way, much the way that many people use the word to demean straight and gay men alike for being less than “a man.”

Tracy Morgan was kicked off the air and edited out of TNT footage for calling Sarah Palin ‘masturbation material.’ I’m sure women were being caught up in their emotions to think that might’ve been offensive as well. Get off of your high horses of dictionary phrases you only looked up today. If you were walking down the street and everyone came up to you calling you what Kobe called that ref, you would wonder what the hell you had done that was so offensive and wouldn’t want to be called it after they explained why. Tone, context, and meaning are everything. None of the way Kobe presented his anger and frustration while using that phrase shows that he meant in any other way than the demeaning way which many people use the word.

For idiots saying that the “F” word only refers to someone who is stupid or a loser. Where do you think the definition grew from?? That is the way that homosexual people were viewed in the past and the meaning just moved on to refer to straight people as well. It’s a cover up by some young idiot who doesn’t know the history of the language he is using. It is incredibly short-sighted to think that words ever lose their original meanings after years. Even the root meaning of the “F” word, hindrance, is meant to be a bad thing. There is no way to say that Kobe didn’t say something that shouldn’t have been taken as offensive in any context. The only thing to question at this point is if the fine matches the crime.

I don’t know about where all of you come from, geographically, politically or otherwise, but here’s my take from a personal experience. Sorry if my thought is a bit choppy, I’m trying to keep it as anti-Simmons as possible.
Back in my high school and early college days (late 90’s early 2000’s) the word “fag” and the phrase “that’s so gay” were thrown around a lot. On the whole I’d say these phrases were never meant to attack the gay community or project some inward hate or bias, it was just one of those things that got thrown around with the myriad of other immature comments.
I’ve never been one for swearing, and in those days swearing carried more weight than one of my friends teasingly calling me a fag when I did something they thought was dumb. That’s the generation Kobe comes from, he and I are the same age, graduated the same year.

My outlook on this changed when a few years later my brother came out and told me he was gay. I remember talking to him one night and in the conversation I let the phrase “that’s so gay” slip and immediately the weight of the comment hit me. He was totally fine with it because he understood the intent of what I said, but nonetheless, since that conversation I have never forgot how I felt and my view on that phrase changed. I haven’t used it since.
Ironically, my brother and his gay friends use every slur under the sun toward one another, but I guess that’s in the same vein as people of different races using the slurs of their race on one another.

That being said I think this incident is more a matter of respect than it is about bigotry or some heavier issue. Should we be more aware of those around us? Absolutely.
As hard as he is about a lot of things, my guess is Kobe treads a just a little bit softer regarding the word he used. (At least during games.)

Just another level of review? Or that it is typical to dispute it?

im surprised this non story story is still a story.

anyone thinking stern didnt do this just to look like hes high and mighty is tripping.

100k fine? ridiculous.

wrong word? yes. holy cow he punched a baby? no.

apologize and move on i suppose, but a fine and public tongue lashing from stern? he can GTFO.

One of the few things that people are asking is that others not use the word in public (at a minimum).

If you don’t understand why some of us don’t want you to say it, then can you understand at face value that we don’t want you to say it? Is this some kind of “slippery slope” argument where you think all words will be banned? You think if you give people an inch, they’ll take a foot?Are you exercising your right to free speech?

If I was your friend, and I asked you not to say “melon farmer” for whatever reason, and you knew it truly genuinely upset me, would you try to get me to stop having that word affect me? Would you accuse me of being to sensitive? Or would you just stop staying it? What’s the cost to you?

This is kind of an extreme angle, I know, but just wanted take this from another view. If you can’t understand why, or if you think people are too sensitive, how about being a little more sensitive yourself and respect people’s wishes, especially when it concerns the use of a simple word. It’s not asking much.

You melon farmers.

If Kobe had called the ref a yellow bastard or a gook, would the Asian community get torn up? Or if he had called him a commie, would the liberals get all up in arms? Or as has been mentioned, a N-word or redskin, would it have stirred such a outrageous fine or dialogue? In past era’s, yes. Not now. He chose the wrong term, that many use, all the time, at a time when it is politically correct to get upset about it. 10 years from now it won’t mean anything.
I think that the use of all profanity and derogatory slang is foolish and shows a remarkable lack of verbal creativity. Yet supposedly “enlightened” people get upset with Kobe’s poor terminology, then drop the F-bomb as if it means shucks or darn.I personally find the F word much more offensive than what Kobe used, though obviously many on this otherwise fine site do not. The reality is that given the current culture of our society, the “hot” button that can get people upset is derogatory homophobic terms.
For everyone who gets so bent out of shape about this, look in a mirror, be honest, and then try to say you haven’t said something at least as bad.
If you haven’t, you must be some crazy Jesus freak or something. Ooooops, might have just offended someone.
 Doubt that will get as big a response though.

Ok, that’s a stretch.