Diss Guy: Magic Johnson
Twenty years ago Magic Johnson dragged the NBA into America’s greatest public health crisis when he announced that he had tested positive for HIV and immediately retired. At the time HIV was still thought of as a “gay disease”, and it was assumed that Johnson was therefore gay. Magic—who had a wife and unborn child at the time— adamantly denied that he was gay, and at times his protestation bordered on homophobia.
Fast forward to last week when TMZ “reported” (I refuse to call ambushing a questionably-public figure with a video camera reporting” that Magic’s now 20 year old son, Earvin III, is gay. With that “news” out there, Magic sat down and gave a wonderfully thoughtful interview about his son and their relationship, and the love between the two was clear.
Now, it shouldn’t be noteworthy when a father supports his child, but in a world where no professional athlete in a major sport has ever come out while playing and people have to “come out” and declare their sexual orientation instead of just existing, we here at The Diss will continue to celebrate those doing the right thing.
in the midst of all this media attention i would like to say that i am truly blessed to have parents that love and support me @magicjohnson
—EJ Johnson (@prince_ej) April 3, 2013
Miss Guy: Phil Jackson
Legendary coach Phil Jackson—mostly hanging out on his Montana ranch in retirement these days—has recently joined Twitter and is seemingly rolling out some sort of marketing campaign. He was recently interviewed by HuffPost Live and was asked if the sports world needs to be more welcome to gay athletes. Jackson responded:
That’s a ridiculous question. I mean, none of us have probably ever seen it in all our careers. There’s no inclusiveness to be had, so it’s really a strange question.
On a follow up question, Jackson asserted that he had never run into a gay athlete in his career. There are a few problems with this. First, it is demonstrably false. Both Kevin Arnovitz and John Amaechi pointed out that Jackson has certainly interacted with a gay basketball player, and he knows it.
Even worse though is Phil’s dismissive attitude throughout the interview. During his coaching career Jackson was nicknamed the Zen Master, and was known for connecting with his players on a deeper level than other coaches. He seemingly had good relationships with his players, and was able to meet each of them on their own level, no matter where that level was.
It’s not that it is surprising to see a professional sports figure refuse to be insightful; it’s that I expected better from Phil.