ESPN, Amaechi and the NBA

My favorite sports columnist, Dave Zirin, rightly takes ESPN and the NBA (among others) to task for their treatment of the story about John Amaechi. Zirin argues that although ESPN is doing a bit of self-promotion because it published Amaechi's book, the story of his coming out is newsworthy. Zirin also argues that the response of ESPN columnist LZ Granderson is terribly misguided because Granderson, who is gay, does not understand the homophobic world that is men's professional sports. Zirin points to the undercovered story about NFL coach Tony Dungy's affiliation with a homophobic group, for instance, and to the NBA's refusal to post a story about Amaechi on its Web site.