Kobe Bryant Fined $100k for Gay Slur

Allenp, ditto you know that I am in line with your thinking more often than not. So let me try to make my thoughts clearer: Of course everybody has standards of what is right and wrong. And surely everybody – Kobe, you, me – judges other people all the time consciensly or un-conscienly, some people a lot some to a lesser extent. But no matter how much I disagree with people like Seed and Cantrell, I still feel like they have the right to live their life the way they choose, and still have the right to believe in whatever they feel like. I pity them and others like them and I try to educate them to the best of my abilities whenever I come across people like that, but ultimately it is not for me to decide what they should feel and think. I can only try to influence and hope that it helps. They and they alone can make these judgements, and no matter how wrong they may be in my eyes; who is to say that I am not wrong?. Of course there are limits to the behaviour You, me and society can tolerate hence societies, organizations like the NBA, and other entities makes up laws, rules and people amongst themselves makes up unwritten rules (this comment section being an excellent example, Greek Guy’s behaviour wasn’t accepted so people started to ‘sanction’ him by ignoring him) to what kind of behaviour is accepted. Sometimes you agree with these rules, laws etc. sometimes you don’t, then you either try to change them (if you are the battling, revolutionary type) in Kobe’s case appeal the decision or you just silently abide to the rules and move along. Do I think Kobe was wrong; yes obiviously, do I think his punishment was just or warranted hmm I don’t know – personally I felt the ref should have tossed him from the game if he actually heard the slur. That would set a much better example; saying ‘look this won’t be tolerated here, you are out’. Do I think Seed and Cantrell are misguided, surely, I pity them and their narrow minds. If I could I would change their stance, but nobody but themselves can do that so really the only thing I can do is try to educate them. I believe education and communication is the way forward on the path to get rid of bigotry etc in the world as we know it. So education and communication, not God, not Allah, not David Stern’s fines, not laws and rules is what I believe in will change the world for the better. If Seed and Cantrell are happy living the way they do and spreading the ignorant messages they are spreading, well good for them. You, me and society will judge them, people can spread the messages they want – the problem only appears when people openly try to hurt or belittle other people, then there must be sanctions in some way – whether it is a fine, prison, being banned from SLAM, losing the respect of Allenp/myself or whatever. Sanctions of some kind will always be undertaken on some kind of level, in Kobe’s case both monetary and in the sense that people gets outraged and doesn’t accept it until he comes out and apologizes. Has Kobe or Tim Hardaways stance on gay people really changed, well we can only guess… But one thing is for sure they will think twice before they utter a slur like that again and that guess is also some kind of education. Does I make more sense now? I hope so if not bear with me, I am crazy hung-over from last night’s whiskey tasting-extravaganza hahhahaa… Just treading waters here at work…

Cosign allenp

to some of the commenters here critiquing the bible and what it contains, try to read the book first from start to finish, some of you might change your tune.

Kobe brought back the word f@%(@ haahah i love it we were callin everyone gay slurs at the bar last night!!! even the gays were in on it they thought it was hilarious

Teddy the Bears argument is by far the best comment posted here @ SLAM that I have ever seen. Much props Teddy

I posted this over on the other “Kobe said a bad word” thread, but it looks like this party is the one that’s poppin’.
Kobe has a contract with morality clauses in it. His language can be construed as being immoral, which justifies Stern’s strong reaction. When NBA players are fined, the money goes to charitable organizations. I’m going out on a limb here and guessing that Kobe’s docked $100K will be donated to a gay & lesbian support group.
@ those using the bible to justify anything: the bible (I’m purposely using lower-case) is nothing more than a book. The bible is a collection of words on paper. Those words were written by people. People with biases and agendas. The bible could be viewed as the greatest work of fiction ever written by a collaborative group for consumption by the masses. Here’s your literary opium, enjoy the Word.

Kobe is so dumb he is always wining to the refs about stuff. He should quit his day job.

The Bible is ALL about interpretation…
Also, many people have read the Bible. And claim to understand it through their interpretation.
As is such, it would behoove those who consider themselves to possess knowledge of the Bible and the ways of God to educate others, spread the teachings of God to the masses, instead of chastising AND ridiculing, criticizing and judging one/those who may not be seen to have knowledge of God/Jesus Christ/the Bible. For, God spake it.
One can argue that people who are speaking of the Bible in a perceived incoherent manner are actually… yearning for God’s grace. Waiting expectantly for His message. It may be the gentile’s way AND method in calling on God for salvation.

@ MikeC: That’s the problem. Just because certain women don’t take offense to the word doesn’t mean it isn’t an offensive slur. For women who use the excuse “I’m not a b!tch, so that word is perfectly okay” or for men who say “I respect women, but not b!tches,” just remember that a white man can just as easily say “I love black people, but I h@te n***ers.” The problem with “b!tch” is that it’s a demeaning, derogatory word that refers SPECIFICALLY to women. Not men, but women, and for a long @ss time women were–and, in many instances, still are–an oppressed group.
Now, the you might not mean it like that when you call another man a b!tch, say, if he’s being a jerk to you, or if he’s being a coward, but that still doesn’t change the actual target of that slur.

@Teddy – I get what you mean. I respectfully disagree (with your 10:27 post). I’m only talking about the word b*tch. In our current culture, the word b*tch appears to have evolved past a derogatory slang for women. Whether you did this intentionally or not, comparing b*tch to the n-bomb makes it much easier for you to strengthen your argument by inferring that if I’m personally okay with the word b*tch, that I must also be okay with dropping the n-bomb. This got me a little riled up, so I called my mom, who is one of the most conservative people I know, and asked her what she thinks of the word b*tch. She asked me if I’d been acting like one, and if I had been, I needed to stop. I laughed so hard my ribs hurt for a bit. She then asked how in the world I got into a debate about this on a basketball website, which made me laugh some more.

I feel you LZ.

^ Co-sign 100%, Allen.