Dear John:
You are the worst of hypocrites.
My man, I will give you props for “coming out.” It couldn’t have been easy, what with all the criticism you knew would be leveled at you by people you've never even met.
But having said that, let’s be honest about what you used your soapbox to do: spew vitriol and hate against anything in Utah that moves and isn’t gay. I haven’t read your book yet (and probably won’t), but I did read your two-and-a-half-page excerpt in ESPN the Magazine. And in a mere 2.5 pages, you managed to throw all of the following people under the proverbial bus:
Jerry Sloan: First of all, tons of former players detest Sloan. But have you noticed, John, that guys aren’t lining up around the block to take a run at him? People move on, John. But you, you attack the guy beneath the veil of “I’m coming out of the closet, and if any people say anything bad about me then, regardless of the veracity of their claims, they’re insensitive, politically-incorrect bigots.” Um, John, if you were a head coach and a player shouted at you “F#@! you, John” in the middle of a game like you did to Sloan, wouldn’t you have suspended that player like Sloan suspended you? And BTW John, end of the day it doesn’t look too good for a career 6.2 ppg scorer to be taking a run at one of the four or five winningest coaches in NBA history. Just thought you should know.
Larry H. Miller: Hey, I’m the last guy who’ll ever be confused with being a proponent of Larry Miller (and no, I most assuredly do NOT “know this guy”), but I’ve got to say that not wanting to show “Brokeback Mountain” at his movie theaters doesn’t mean Larry necessarily has “antipathy towards gay people.” And John, you might want to hire a fact checker for your next book, b/c you wrote that Miller’s “NBC affiliate (was) the source of much of his wealth” and took a run at him for not wanting to show “Brokeback” at his theaters but being willing to show “Will & Grace” on his NBC affiliate. Um, John, that’d be the LDS church that owns the local NBC affiliate, not Sir Larry.
SLC reporters: We all know I’m a bit biased here, because I am myself a newspaper man. But John, when you write, “By the end of my second season in Utah, I was practically daring reporters to out me. My sexuality, I felt, had become an open secret…” you’re being very, very misleading. Congrats on your use of the word “practically,” because it gives you carte blanche to say whatever you want without having to give a factual basis for it. As in, “I practically finished in the Top 10 percent of my law school class,” and “I practically treat my wife like the royalty she really is 24/7.” I can 100-percent promise you, John, that if you had actually (and not practically) dared any SLC reporter to “out” you, you would’ve been evicted from your closet. Jazz beat reporters are inwardly bitter about making peanuts and having to keep to the grueling travel sked of the team they cover while dealing with Jerry “the quote machine” Sloan day in and day out. Columnists want to get the next big scoop and be lauded as super-duper intelligent. Believe me, John, either class of newspaper would’ve outted you in a heartbeat if for no other reason than to accomplish their personal agendas.
Mormons and Salt Lake City: You write, “…I had to be stuck in the repressive, Mormon capital of the Western world.” I’m not going to argue that Mormon culture isn’t at times repressive, but it’s quite unfair for you to imply that Mormon culture is inherently repressive (if the most defining characteristic of the culture’s capital is repression, then it would go to reason that the culture itself is repressive through-and-through). You know, kind of like Tim Hardaway saying he hates ALL gays? Oh, and John, what the hell kind of standing do you have to complain about Utah when YOU SIGNED HERE AS A FREE AGENT AFTER TURNING DOWN A MORE LUCRATIVE OFFER FROM THE LAKERS!?!
A few more pointers: not a good idea to call Greg Ostertag a “gentle giant” and make him sound like the best teammate of all-time. “O” is one of the biggest NBA underachievers of all-time in terms of how much potential he didn’t realize during his career. And last but not least, please know John that very few people under any circumstances would ever want to have read a sentence like this one that you wrote: “I even had an experience unfamiliar to my life in the States: sex. I had a memorable drunken night with an adorable wrestler (what is it with those guys?) from the University of Utah.” Enough said!!
Like Dallas Clark at a girls high school basketball game, I am out.
You are the worst of hypocrites.
My man, I will give you props for “coming out.” It couldn’t have been easy, what with all the criticism you knew would be leveled at you by people you've never even met.
But having said that, let’s be honest about what you used your soapbox to do: spew vitriol and hate against anything in Utah that moves and isn’t gay. I haven’t read your book yet (and probably won’t), but I did read your two-and-a-half-page excerpt in ESPN the Magazine. And in a mere 2.5 pages, you managed to throw all of the following people under the proverbial bus:
Jerry Sloan: First of all, tons of former players detest Sloan. But have you noticed, John, that guys aren’t lining up around the block to take a run at him? People move on, John. But you, you attack the guy beneath the veil of “I’m coming out of the closet, and if any people say anything bad about me then, regardless of the veracity of their claims, they’re insensitive, politically-incorrect bigots.” Um, John, if you were a head coach and a player shouted at you “F#@! you, John” in the middle of a game like you did to Sloan, wouldn’t you have suspended that player like Sloan suspended you? And BTW John, end of the day it doesn’t look too good for a career 6.2 ppg scorer to be taking a run at one of the four or five winningest coaches in NBA history. Just thought you should know.
Larry H. Miller: Hey, I’m the last guy who’ll ever be confused with being a proponent of Larry Miller (and no, I most assuredly do NOT “know this guy”), but I’ve got to say that not wanting to show “Brokeback Mountain” at his movie theaters doesn’t mean Larry necessarily has “antipathy towards gay people.” And John, you might want to hire a fact checker for your next book, b/c you wrote that Miller’s “NBC affiliate (was) the source of much of his wealth” and took a run at him for not wanting to show “Brokeback” at his theaters but being willing to show “Will & Grace” on his NBC affiliate. Um, John, that’d be the LDS church that owns the local NBC affiliate, not Sir Larry.
SLC reporters: We all know I’m a bit biased here, because I am myself a newspaper man. But John, when you write, “By the end of my second season in Utah, I was practically daring reporters to out me. My sexuality, I felt, had become an open secret…” you’re being very, very misleading. Congrats on your use of the word “practically,” because it gives you carte blanche to say whatever you want without having to give a factual basis for it. As in, “I practically finished in the Top 10 percent of my law school class,” and “I practically treat my wife like the royalty she really is 24/7.” I can 100-percent promise you, John, that if you had actually (and not practically) dared any SLC reporter to “out” you, you would’ve been evicted from your closet. Jazz beat reporters are inwardly bitter about making peanuts and having to keep to the grueling travel sked of the team they cover while dealing with Jerry “the quote machine” Sloan day in and day out. Columnists want to get the next big scoop and be lauded as super-duper intelligent. Believe me, John, either class of newspaper would’ve outted you in a heartbeat if for no other reason than to accomplish their personal agendas.
Mormons and Salt Lake City: You write, “…I had to be stuck in the repressive, Mormon capital of the Western world.” I’m not going to argue that Mormon culture isn’t at times repressive, but it’s quite unfair for you to imply that Mormon culture is inherently repressive (if the most defining characteristic of the culture’s capital is repression, then it would go to reason that the culture itself is repressive through-and-through). You know, kind of like Tim Hardaway saying he hates ALL gays? Oh, and John, what the hell kind of standing do you have to complain about Utah when YOU SIGNED HERE AS A FREE AGENT AFTER TURNING DOWN A MORE LUCRATIVE OFFER FROM THE LAKERS!?!
A few more pointers: not a good idea to call Greg Ostertag a “gentle giant” and make him sound like the best teammate of all-time. “O” is one of the biggest NBA underachievers of all-time in terms of how much potential he didn’t realize during his career. And last but not least, please know John that very few people under any circumstances would ever want to have read a sentence like this one that you wrote: “I even had an experience unfamiliar to my life in the States: sex. I had a memorable drunken night with an adorable wrestler (what is it with those guys?) from the University of Utah.” Enough said!!
Like Dallas Clark at a girls high school basketball game, I am out.
1 comment:
There is no way the American Idol girl, Sloan, should have received a better grade than you in seventh grade English. After reading your open letter, I can say definitively that she used her looks and personality to jump ahead of you on the big board.
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