So maybe there was a greater purpose at hand when the Nets were constructed as they were, a significance that lies somewhere beyond whatever hopes remain they can make an improbable run at the Pacers or the Heat in the coming months.
Maybe, in an unknown, invisible way, they were built as they are, with this coach and these veteran players — even this owner — to serve as a template for how the assimilation of gay athletes into the mainstream of professional sports is supposed to go, a blueprint for how the supporting community should behave, as adults, as this new phase of American athletics begins.
“The decision to sign Jason was a basketball decision,” Nets general manager Billy King said in a statement Sunday, not long after the team signed Jason Collins to a 10-day contract, officially making Collins the first openly gay athlete to compete in the four major American team spots. “We needed to increase our depth inside and with his experience and size we felt he was the right choice for a 10-day contract.”
And the Nets were the perfect choice to not only give this signing a proper air of legitimacy, but also as a manner of displaying how this should happen, everywhere else, from this day on. This was a team, remember, assembled with a deadly serious mission, title or bust, now or never, and if the Nets still haven’t necessarily proven that’s a reasonable goal, it remains the goal nevertheless. So they are not about to waste roster space on a lark, on a whim, on a novelty.
You can take King at face value on this: It matters more to this franchise to make the most of the season at hand than to worry about the greater good and future of the league. They have no time to busy themselves with social causes. Collins, who had two rebounds in 11 minutes Sunday night, is a Net because he is a big body with 12 years experience, not because of his sexual orientation.
But the fact is, his homosexuality will be an issue, if not on the team then at this great American crossroads. And the Nets are as equipped to make this leap as any team ever will be. They are coached by a man, Jason Kidd, whose affinity and respect for Collins dates back to the Nets’ back-to-back runs to the NBA Finals in 2002 and 2003. They are owned by a man, Mikhail Prokhorov, who shares little in common with his countryman Vladimir Putin when it comes to the issues of prejudice or civil justice, who has stated repeatedly he will hire anyone who helps make his businesses stronger and healthier.
And the roster is thick with veterans who have seen so much in their careers, who have already played with teammates of diverse proclivities and personalities. The Nets haven’t always been a runaway hit in this year of severe expectations but they have almost always been professional. If it’s true that not every clubhouse and locker room in pro sports is ready for what’s coming — and that certainly seems fair to say — this is one room that is.
“Great competitor, plays team basketball, is for the team, great guy, great character,” was the summation of Kevin Garnett, and if Garnett has occasionally crossed the line with opponents with his running in-game commentaries and trash talk, he is also viewed as one of the most fiercely loyal teammates in sports. You can guarantee there will be no off-court issues with Collins allowed on Garnett’s watch.
And that will be the most valuable part of this transaction, the fact it brings us one step closer to a time when this will not be anything more than a line of agate type in the newspaper. It is a sign of how evolved the country has become that even for many whose views of homosexuality remain somewhat conservative, their main issue with Collins and Michael Sam isn’t that they’re gay, it’s that they had to announce they’re gay.
Which is actually the kind of aspiration just about everyone can hope for, no matter where you stand on the subject. As Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni said Sunday at his team’s morning shootaround: “I hope one day if a player can play, he can play. If he can’t, he can’t. That’s all we should be talking about.”
And here’s the thing: That will happen. Some have likened the cases of Collins and Sam to Jackie Robinson’s breaking of the color line in 1947, and while that’s not necessarily a great comparison there is one aspect that provides a road map for how this will probably go, and should go. If you read news accounts from that ‘47 season, almost every story refers to Robinson as “Negro” at some point — sometimes multiple points. That was the biggest news hook, identifying his race.
By 1948 it happened much less, and by 1949, when Robinson was the MVP of the National League, the adjectives were a lot different: “Dodger,” “second baseman” and “baseball player,” mostly, and by then most every other African-American player was treated similarly. If you read the paper and didn’t know they were black, you wouldn’t know they were black.
That’s where we’ll get with this issue, too. Eventually. And that journey starts now.