One of the most famous players in the National Basketball Association, Kobe Bryant, took to Twitter on Sunday to tell a fan to stop using ‘gay’ as an insult.
After a man identifying as Michael on Twitter tweeted “you’re gay” at another person, the LA Lakers shooting guard called them both out on Twitter — in a tweet that elicited over 3,000 retweets and 2,000 favorites:
Just letting you know@PacSmoove @pookeo9 that using “your gay” as a way to put someone down ain’t ok! #notcool delete that out ur vocab
— Kobe Bryant (@kobebryant) February 11, 2013
Bryant has clearly come a long way from a few years ago, when he called the referee at a game a “fucking fag.” That action incurred a $100,000 fine from the NBA, and actually prompted the association to run a series of PSAs from famous basketball players encouraging fans to stop “using gay to mean dumb or stupid.” Someone on Twitter called Bryant out on that during Sunday’s interraction, and Bryant jumped to point out how that experience informed his opinion:
@onepercentofone @pookeo9 exactly! That wasn’t cool and was ignorant on my part. I own it and learn from it and expect the same from others
— Kobe Bryant (@kobebryant) February 11, 2013
Compared to the hostility toward gay people in other sports, the NBA has been relatively progressive about LGBT issues. Just last week, Denver Nuggets player Kenneth Faried came out for marriage equality in his team’s state of Colorado, and major NBA figureheads, such as former All-Star Charles Barkley, have voiced support for same-sex marriage, acknowledging that, “I had gay teammates.”
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