{"id":656782,"date":"2013-05-08T11:59:50","date_gmt":"2013-05-08T15:59:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.webpronews.com\/?p=228899"},"modified":"2013-05-08T11:59:50","modified_gmt":"2013-05-08T15:59:50","slug":"barkley-gay-players-were-no-big-deal-in-the-nba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/656782","title":{"rendered":"Barkley: Gay Players Were \u201cNo Big Deal\u201d In The NBA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Charles Barkley knows a thing or two about the NBA. He was a player for more than 15 years so surely he would know something about gay players in the league, right? <\/p>\n

In a radio interview on the Dan Patrick show, the subject of Jason Collins, who recently came out as the first openly gay NBA player<\/a>, and gay players in the NBA became a topic. Barkley said he, and pretty much every other player, had played with a gay teammate during their time in the league: <\/p>\n

\n

Everybody did. Everybody played with a gay teammate, Dan. And it\u2019 s no big deal. First of all, I think it\u2019s an insult to gay people to think that they\u2019re trying to pick up on their teammates. But everybody has played with a gay teammate\u2026 It\u2019s obviously discussed, privately, because the problem is, Dan, unless somebody tells you they\u2019re gay, you can\u2019t say a thing about them being gay. Ya know, until somebody has the courage, and I think it takes great courage to come out, it\u2019s kind of an unspoken word to be honest with you.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

He used Collins to back up his claim saying that the Wizards center had played with six teams, so by extension, players on those six teams had played with a gay teammate. He also said that nobody knows a teammate is gay until they come out because “it’s none of your business.” <\/p>\n

You can check out the full interview with Barkley below: <\/p>\n