Jason Collins is gay — and?

Jason Collins is gay! There’s an openly homosexual man playing in the NBA!

OK, does anyone mind if I go back to my job and family now?

I don’t agree with the media making this an enormous story. I also don’t agree with the personal attacks that Collins is receiving, either. To me, Collins was an average backup center last week and he’s an average backup center this week. There’s not much more to the story.

I do think there’s a level of toughness coming out because of the scrutiny, but there’s also a level of lucrativeness to it as well.

What’s really sad about the state of our country is how each end of the spectrum will read the last sentence and go nuts on it since they read it through their filter to see something that’s not there.

If you’re to the right politically, you’ll feel the need to lecture me since I called Collins tough. You’ll feel incomplete if you don’t e-mail me just to say, “He’s no hero! He’s not a soldier or first responder!” Before you hit send on that e-mail, where did I compare him to heroes? I didn’t, you felt the need to establish what Collins represents to you.

If you’re on the left politically, you loved the sentence at first. Then you saw the word “lucrative.” Now you’re going crazy. Here comes your tweet, “He didn’t come out just to make money. You’re so lost to not see his courage. How dare you even suggest that money was his motivation. You have no idea what it’s been like for Collins. You take your freedom for granted while he was never free.”

Where did I say he came out to make money? I didn’t. However, are you in denial that there won’t be endorsement opportunities for him that have never existed in the history of sports? There will be more chances for him to make money off the court than any backup center in basketball history.

Unfortunately we live in a new society. It’s a society that would rather attack than listen. As a talk show host, I know one truth that others don’t see: People claim they want honesty from the the media and politicians. Ironically, that’s a lie. People don’t want honesty, they want reinforcement. If the truth doesn’t reinforce what they think, they’ll go find a different version that fits their own truth.

Jason Collins is gay. Now let’s play basketball.

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