Richard | Allen | Smith

There was a time when self-righteous segregationists just wanted to be left alone. If you wanted to integrate your schools, your churches, your bus stations, and your water fountains, that was fine. But those segregationists had a way of life and beliefs, some argued religions, which they had to preserve.

If you thought segregation was wrong, it wasn’t a moral stand. It was just a difference of opinion. And we can all be civil and still have differing opinions, right?

But something becomes more than just an opinion when your opinion hurts someone. It becomes an atrocity when it hurts an entire prominent segment of society.

Somewhere between the original social construction of racism and contemporary American society, racism ceased to be a “difference of opinion”. We realized it was incorrect. It doesn’t matter how you were raised. It doesn’t matter what you think your religion commands. If you dislike someone solely because of his or her ethnicity, you don’t just have a difference of opinion. You are wrong.

Today, Jason Collins became the first active player in a major American male team sport (there’s another piece to be written about all those qualifiers and the gender role implications of what we consider “sports”) to openly acknowledge that he is gay. Good for Jason Collins, good for the NBA and good for the gay athletes of all ages who now don’t have to be the first to brave those waters.

Enter CBS Sports personality Tim Brando:

.@callmeg_unit Simple Being a a Christian White male over 50 that’s raised a family means nothing in today’s culture. The sad truth. Period.

— Tim Brando (@TimBrando)

April 29, 2013

Brando’s comments are in response to Jason Collins being called a “hero”. Brando disagrees.

Two points for Tim, who retweets a follower including “veterans” and “single parents” on a list of people who are, according to the tweeter, “heroes”.

I’m both of those things, and Jason Collins is far more of a hero than me. Jason’s article in Sports Illustrated made life a little bit easier for thousands, if not more, of athletes who exist in a culture that has been hesitant to embrace their identity. He’s chosen to be the first to run the gauntlet and brave the bigotry of people like Brando who will attack him for being nothing more than the person he was born as. He’s drawing rhetorical fire so that fellow gay athletes can maneuver. He is the first, and no other athlete will ever take the amount of criticism he will for living an honest life.

And to move beyond athletes, he has personified an example that is counter to the stereotype of a homosexual male. Gay children and adolescents now have a role model for gay masculinity that says “gay doesn’t have to be weak, gay doesn’t have to be effeminate.” Many adolescents will realize they can be fabulous or ferocious or both or neither or anything else they want to be without having to comply with the norms society has projected on their orientation. So yes. Jason Collins is a hero.

Second, Tim Brando, you are now Archie Bunker. You are a man living outside of your time. You don’t believe these things because you are a white, (I’m not sure with what being White has to do with morality, but that’s another conversation), male, Christian, over 50, or have a family. You believe these things because you are wrong.

Our social norms, thankfully, have moved beyond you. We now realize, as a society, that discrimination against gays for decades (or centuries) has been wrong and we must correct those mistakes for current and future generations.

If your Christianity tells you to be a bigot, you have the wrong kind of Christianity. If being over 50 tells you to hate gays, you’re doing old wrong. If being white makes you oppose who Jason Collins is as a person, you belong with plantation owners and men who stood in schoolhouse doors. If having a family makes you think any less of Jason Collins, you are a poor family man and I hope, for the sake of your children, they do not look to you as an example of anything more than what not to be.

Tim Brando has a choice. He can apologize and repent from his bigotry, or he can be the George Wallace of sports history. The overwhelming majority of our society awaits your decision, Tim.

As someone who has lived a similar story to today’s events in Newtown, I’m spent. I can’t soapbox on Twitter of Facebook one more minute. 

I can’t do any more tonight. I just want to curl up in a warm place and wait for a better day. 

I’m thankful that I have a daughter in Kindergarten who is more than I deserve and brings me immeasurable amounts of happiness every day. 

I’m grateful that I have friends that I don’t deserve who love me, even when I act like a jackass as I am wont to do, and did especially horribly this past weekend. 

Let’s all love each other, and spend every day trying to be better people. Maybe if we do that enough, the world might just become a better place. 

So this year I’ve purchased the NBA League Pass Broadband Choice package. For those not familiar, this lets you pick 5 times for whose seasons you will receive every game on PC or internet device that runs into your TV (XBox, Roku, etc.).

At first I was going to take the Nuggets, and four other teams like the Heat, Thunder, Clippers and someone else. But several NBA forums made a good point on this: those teams are already going to have a ton of nationally televised games, so you aren’t getting much for your buck.

So here is your challenge: Choose 4 teams (I’m still taking the Nuggets) who aren’t going to be nationally televised so often to make it not worth it, but will still be interesting to watch and follow through out the season. Also, consider that when you pick teams from the same division, you are doubling down on their games, and the same goes picking teams that are in the same division as those often on TV. For your convenience, I’ve pasted the number of nationally televised games for each team below (excluding NBATV games, because I don’t get that, and really this is just my con to get you guys to make this decision for me).

At first glance, Houston is the biggest no-brainer. They will be super interesting this year with Lin and Harden, and they’ve only got 2 national games. Other contenders are Minnesota, Atlanta, Utah, Indiana, Philly, & Memphis.

Kings 0

Rapters 0

Bobcats 0

Cavs 1 

Wizards 1 (note: I live in the DC area, so I’ll get most of these)

Bucks 1

Hornets 2

Magic 2

Rockets 2

Pistons 2

Hawks 3

Suns 4

Timberwolves 5

Jazz 6

Pacers 7

76ers 7

Grizzlies 8

Warriors 8

Blazers 8

Nets 12

Nuggets 12 (note: this is my favorite team. I’m taking them. Deal with it.)

Spurs 16

Mavericks 17

Celtics 19

Bulls 19

Clippers 23

Lakers 24

Knicks 25

Heat 25

Thunder 25