For a guy who had a fairly forgettable NBA career (dude averaged a little over 6 ppg for three different teams), he’s gotten quite a bit of ink in the last few months. Oh, right, he’s (gasp!) openly gay and seems to sort of enjoy the attention. Never mind.
Anyhow, Dan Steinberg of the DC Sports bog was kind enough to send along his interview with John Amaechi, in which they discussed Amaechi’s recent “encounter” with Kobe Bryant and other members of Team USA in China (among other things):
So let’s get this out of the way up front: the actual “incident,” which Amaechi had already explicitly described on his blog nearly two weeks ago, involved Kobe seeing Amaechi through the window of the team bus as the U.S. team headed towards the media center for their introductory press conference.
According to Amaechi, Kobe then mouthed the words “what the [bleep]?””I was lip reading,” Amaechi told me. “Not that it’s one of my particular talents, but some things you can tell.”
So, he didn’t actually talk to the guy (or any of his teammates for that matter); he read lips through a bus window and concluded that they were all feeling “derision, amusement and contempt” at the sight of a gay former basketball player. Riiiight.
Hope you’re enjoying these long 15 minutes of fame, John.
