“Horses, Texans, cowboys or gays”
November 14th, 2007, 6:26 pm · 2 Comments · posted by KEVIN DING, OCREGISTER.COM
Phil Jackson was reprimanded by the NBA – but avoided a fine — for a sexual reference in a postgame remark about the movie “Brokeback Mountain” to reporters in San Antonio. NBA spokesman Brian McIntyre said the comment was “in poor taste, and the Lakers have assured us such remarks will not occur in the future.”
Neil G. Giuliano, president of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, said in a statement: “Phil Jackson’s been coaching long enough that he should be able to talk about the Lakers’ performance without resorting to cheap gay jokes.”
Said Jackson on Wednesday: “I wanted to thank all the journalists and the TV people who thought it was humorous last night in the moment for their support and laughing, but in retrospect it wasn’t really funny. When you take it out of context, it’s not funny. It’s a poor attempt at humor, and I deserved to be reprimanded by the NBA. And I said to them that if I’ve offended any horses, Texans, cowboys or gays, I apologize.”
November 14th, 2007 at 10:44 pm
PJ is pretty funny. And his apology did not sound all that serious as, I think, not many people found it offensive. The purpose of the public apology is probably to prevent his joke from setting precedent of making bad jokes of that nature and going unpunished.
November 16th, 2007 at 10:30 am
Personally I think Americans need to get over thier knee-jerk reactions to peoples’ quips and comments, however off color they may be. That said, the best part of this whole brouhaha is that PJ manages to turn the obligatory “appology” on its head! CLEARLY his “appology” was more tongue-in-cheek then the original comment. Good form PJ!!!!!