Kobe Apologizes for Gay Slur, Sort Of

Let's all scan into our memory banks all the back to early November for a moment.  No we don't need to recall the Friday night game at the Garden when the Celtics defeated the Chicago Bulls to conjure up some pleasant memories.  I'm referring to earlier that week when they were in Detroit, throttling the Pistons.  We all remember quite vividly what happened after the game.

Charlie Villanueva sent out a tweet that accused Kevin Garnett of issuing some nasty statements his way. We all know what happened, but here's a solid synopsis of the entire fiasco.  The interesting thing about it was that there was no video or audio evidence.  It was essentially a he-said, he-said.  Yet, there were countless stories written, blog posts and Twitter arguments eviscerating KG.  So last night during the Lakers/Spurs game, Kobe Bryant gets caught on camera uttering these words:

Look, I have a hard time believing that KG is that insensitive to cancer patients just as much as I doubt Kobe is homophobic.  My point here is that for all those people demanding an explanation and apology from KG should be asking at least that much from Kobe here, if not more.  Kobe's "apology" went like this:

 “What I said last night should not be taken literally.  My actions were out of frustration during the Heat of the game, period.  The words expressed do NOT reflect my feelings towards the gay and lesbian communities and were NOT meant to offend anyone.”

By no means am I assuming Kobe is the only player that uses this type of language or even worse language.  I don't condone any of it, but having played at any level, high school, college, pro, local YMCA leagues, random pickup games, I'm sure everyone has heard it all if not ushered a few choice words themselves. But there are a few words and phrases that should NEVER be said and self-restraint can easily be practiced in these situations.  This situation is one of them.

As a season ticket holder I've heard a lot worse things said from fans at referees and other players.  Not just in Boston, but in New York, Miami, LA and Denver.  It's not a city, team or player thing.  It's everywhere, but that doesn't mean it's ok.  Things like that can easily be curbed with a little self-restraint.

For someone who likes to call himself the "Black Mamba" and who is routinely arrogant towards the media, he issued a PR response that didn't necessarily include an apology.  It's also laughable that the only thing the Lakers officially had to say was the following:

"The Lakers can not confirm that is what Kobe said or not," the team said in a statement obtained by TMZ.com.

If that's all they came up with then that is absurd on many levels.  You don't need to hire a lip-reader or a private investigator to figure out what he said.  Kobe's statement was about what you could expect, but an apology would have been nice as well.  He also seems to think it's ok in the heat of battle to reel off things like that which again, can easily be avoided.  Avoiding an apology, and avoiding what obviously happened here is what Kobe and his organization have decided that's the best thing to do… sort of.