Tolerance (The REAL reason Jason Collins is still unsigned)

"I gotta be me bruh!"

Jessica Lange, the famous actress, once said, “Acceptance and tolerance and forgiveness, those are life-altering lessons.” The Dalai Lama broke it down like this, “In the practice of tolerance, one’s enemy is the best teacher.” Robert Green Ingersoll, orator of United States during the Golden Age of Freethought, shut the barber shop down when he said, “Tolerance is giving to every other human being every right that you claim for yourself.”

This past April Jason Collins, who had just finished his 12^th season in the NBA decided to come out of the closet and announce that he was gay. The media world blew up and ran down the street yelling that there was finally an active openly gay player in a major American sport. When he did it I was the first to say in my Huggy Lowdown voice, “Waaaaait for it!”

I thought that it was great that he wanted the world to know who he was after all of these years. He’s finally free to be Jason. However, because he wasn’t a major star in the league and was merely playing clean up minutes with the freakin’ Washington Wizards that he essentially ended his career with the announcement. Nobody was going to touch him this summer because his ability to produce on the floor wasn’t worth the distraction that it would cause and I was right.

Several NBA general managers have said according to Ric Bucher of the Bleacher Report that the aversion to Collins isn’t how his sexuality will play out in the locker room but over the media attention and distraction it will create for all of the players.

Its several days before the start of the NBA season and this dun is still waiting on the call that ain’t coming playboy. If he were still in his prime and putting up crazy points he’d be in camp somewhere but as a cat that’s deep in the bench, boyz aren’t touching that media circus with a ten foot pole or the locker room distraction.

Here’s the clown that’s always screaming from the roof top without thinking, “Why can’t a brother be openly gay in an NBA locker room if that’s who he is?” He can be whoever and whatever he wants to be because God loves everybody playa. I’m cool with him being gay but I’m not the problem the locker room is.

Let’s keep it real or all the way 100, whichever comes 1^st! An NBA, NFL or MLB locker room isn’t like the real world homeboy. See the real world is very diverse culturally, mentally, socially and most importantly hormonally.

The locker room is filled with all of the same types of people that are overly aggressive, TESTOSTERONE driven and are all like-minded. That’s why it’s called a professional sports locker room. No other place in the world is made up of that dynamic. In order to become a professional basketball, football or baseball player you have to have an excessive amount of testosterone playboy. Now there are exceptions to that rule because we’d be foolish to believe that Jason Collins is the only cat that’s gay playing ball.

So therefore, you can’t just role up in the spot and announce that you’re gay and expect that cats are gonna be OK with it. Is it right? Absolutely not! Is it the truth? Absolutely! Are there other guys on the low that are gay in locker rooms right now? Absolutely! Are they gonna come out? I doubt it.

Unfortunately, Jason Collins doesn’t live in a world of what should be, he lives in a world of what is and that world is male professional sports. It’s comprised of the same personalities and is driven by one thing, TESTOSTERONE and there’s nothing people can do about that unless they’re going to change the nature (hormones) of the duns that you call your sports heroes and get different personalities to play it. The prototypical gladiator is running on 100% testosterone bruh! He's a man's man! So you’re going to be hard pressed getting his mind to think otherwise. Is it unfortunate? Sure it is! But is it the truth? Absolutely!

See most people that are screaming that these athletes are some jerks and that they’re being intolerant of the gay community are only looking at it from the normal everyday work environment standpoint. It’s not like going to work in the real world because there is so much diversity in thinking and there is always varying levels of estrogen and testosterone floating around the building. In a male sports locker room there’s typically only one level of testosterone floating around and it’s on full blast.

The one thing that boyz never think about is the major difference between the real world and professional sports! At 5pm when it’s time to get off work everybody on your job doesn’t have to get in my Bernie Mac voice, “Bucket Naked” and take a shower together. If that were the case folks would be more tolerant of why boyz think the way they think in the locker room. Most, if not all of these duns are cool with Jason Collins or any other cat being gay because who he sleeps with is of no importance to them. They just aren’t as comfortable getting naked in front of them. That’s real talk!

Here’s my guy on the roof again, “Just because a person is gay doesn’t mean that they’re attracted to every person of the same sex!” You’re absolutely right playboy! But as a straight man if I had to take a shower with other women after work that I thought were fine but weren't interested in, I’d still be checking them out. And I’m quite sure they would be uncomfortable with it.

Why do we have Men and Women's rest rooms in the real world? Because people would be uncomfortable using the same facilities as the opposite sex because of the potential for foolishness that could jump off.

So this has nothing to do with straight athletes being intolerant of a gay athlete. It has everything to do with folks being uncomfortable with the locker room situation and the distraction that it would cause. I guarantee you that if your CEO announced that it was mandatory that all employees, regardless of sexual orientation, shower together at 5pm starting today. It would be some cats putting in their notice today. Tolerance goes both ways bruh! If we can just get to a point in this world where duns would respect the beliefs of ALL people we'd be alright! I'm just sayin'!

Holla At Ya Boy!
Jay Graves
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The quote under the caption isn’t real but its REAL talk!