Gregg Popovich on Rajon Rondo’s slurs: ‘You see it all the time’
In what is perhaps the saddest part of the entire Rajon Rondo mess, San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich admitted that he wasn’t surprised in the slightest that Rondo would berate what he more than likely knew was a gay referee with a series of homophobic slurs.
[Follow Dunks Don’t Lie on Tumblr: The best slams from all of basketball]
Reporters talked to Popovich before his team’s game with the Utah Jazz on Monday, a contest that the referee in the middle of this sad incident (longtime ref Bill Kennedy) worked.
Popovich condemned Rondo’s detestable actions, but answered truthfully when asked if the whole exchange caught him off guard.
From Jeff McDonald at the San Antonio Express-News:
“Why would I be surprised? You see it all the time,” Popovich said. “It’s unfortunate. It’s disgusting. Bill is a great guy. He’s been a class act, on and off the court.
“As far as anybody’s sexual orientation, it’s nobody’s business. It just shows ignorance. To act in a derogatory way toward anybody in the LBGT community doesn’t make sense. But surprised? Of course not.”
In the hours since, however, Popovich may have been both surprised and warmed to find player after player logging onto Twitter to condemn Rondo’s remarks and show support for Kennedy.
Like one from this All-Star forward:
Or this point guard, who is also his team’s union representative:
And the thoughtful words of this veteran star and future Hall of Famer:
And one from this goofball, known for being an early adopter on several social media platforms:
There’s the statement from this retired legend:
Even one from this rookie, only a teenager but making all the sense of someone twice his age:
And, finally, the league’s Players Association measured response:
(Your browser is working just fine. Your internet connection is flowing freely. These tweets don’t exist.)
Of course, these tweets do exist:
Nary an apology to be found. This also came after Rondo – the Sacramento Kings’ point guard and supposed team leader – ducked the mean old media and fled to the comfort of his smartphone following Monday’s practice.
Even his explanations were out and out lies.
Of course Rajon Rondo meant to offend. That’s why people use slurs that were created to demean the parts of us that make us unique.
Bill Kennedy’s sexual orientation has not been a secret in league circles for years, and not in many fan and media circles for the last few years. Rondo knew exactly who he was speaking to, and exactly what the words meant. And, somehow, the dozens and sometimes hundreds of NBA players that work each night that don’t agree with a referee’s call still manage to keep that word out of their vocabulary when they approach their temper tantrum.
Those players stayed silent on Monday, to their great shame. Had a white Sacramento King called Bill Kennedy the n-word at the height of his frustration with the refs that same night, he would have been rightfully carted off the court in a stretcher after a deserved beating from players of all races on either team. Yet NBA players, who work amongst heaps of gay men and women both on court and off, let their coaches do the talking for them. Weak.
Rajon Rondo probably doesn’t give a rip as to what Bill Kennedy does in his personal life. A lot of people that spew this hate speech don’t. The point here was to have something over Bill Kennedy. To make him feel small, as if he deserves to because of who he is. That he is beneath Rajon Rondo, because of how he was born, and how Rajon Rondo was born. To invoke a culture of fear and eventually terror in an innocent person that doesn’t deserve as much, merely for living their otherwise peaceful day to day lives as they see fit.
If only they had a word for that sort of thing.
And for this, Rajon Rondo got one game. And his players’ union stayed silent. And no NBA player came out from behind their pathetic shield to criticize Rajon Rondo. And the dean of pro sports coaches, while condemning it, had to shrug his shoulders and sadly admit that he wasn’t surprised.
And Bill Kennedy, for the near future, won’t be thought of in the same words that the NBA used in its tidy press release, or the shared apt and accurate descriptions used by coaches when asked to give their opinion on Kennedy’s honesty.
No, he’ll be known as “the guy Rajon Rondo called ‘a m************ f*****.’”
This stuff lingers. And the NBA’s players, in their silence, are condoning as much.
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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KDonhoops
