CKNW’s David Pratt on gays in the locker room
On Thursday, I wrote a short essay for Maclean's on the aftermath of NBA centre Jason Collins' decision to come out as gay:
In the brave new world of out gay athletes, fire and brimstone are less dangerous than simple stupidity. I’m thinking, in particular, of the old, ignorant assertion that gays in the locker room would be—and now are—a “distraction” to their teammates.
So said David Pratt, a radio host and sports commentator on Vancouver’s CKNW, on Tuesday morning. Discussing Jason Collins, Pratt trotted out that asinine old canard: a gay player is a “distraction,” and, as a consequence, a detriment to his team. Follow Pratt’s logic and you arrive at an inescapable conclusion: having a gay player on your roster makes you more likely to lose.
Pratt took to the airwaves on Thursday evening to respond to my piece. Here he is, speaking with CKNW's Dave Sheldon, on air at approximately 8:20 p.m. Pacific time on Thursday, May 2nd:
PRATT: In Maclean’s magazine… I’ve been called a “bigot” and a “zealot.”* “Asinine.”** I’ve never been slagged this hard and none of it is true. The guy who wrote this column ripping me, Adam Goldenberg, is going to be on the show on Monday, and we’ll get into it hot and heavy. When I read that today, I was just fuming. He took one word completely out of context and now suddenly I’m a bigot….
[Collins’ coming out] was historic, and, on Monday, I also pointed out that it was courageous…. But I also pointed out that this is going to be a distraction. No matter whether he plays or not, alright, there is an issue here, because he’s about to turn 35 years old, and doesn’t have the numbers that are gonna attract a lot of people. So, all of a sudden, you sit back and wonder, if he does want to play one more year, do we suddenly slide into the politics of this dance? That was my only concern. And that’s all it was: a concern.
Now, Dave [Sheldon], I want to get into this, because Allan [sic] Goldenberg, who obviously wasn’t listening to what I was saying,*** and the celebration that I was making with the announcement and the courage that he had showed, that’s not the word that he picked up on. He picked up on the word “distraction.” Suddenly now, in print, in Maclean’s, I am now, by name, a “bigot” and a “zealot.”* He referred to me as “asinine”**—[that I’d] said that “a gay player is a distraction, a detriment to his team. Follow Pratt’s logic and you arrive at the inescapable conclusion that having a gay player on your roster makes you more likely to lose…. Listening to David Pratt…I was being told that I was a weakness, a liability, and a distraction.”
None of that is what I said,*** and I’m furious with him…. He took that one word, “distraction,” and completely took it out of context, and twisted it. Am I right to be this pissed?
SHELDON: Oh, absolutely you are…. It doesn’t matter one bit whether I know you more or less than the average listener…. You’ve never once said anything derogatory about the person himself… You spoke about the business of the game.
SHELDON: We put out our opinion there, and Mr. Goldenberg chose to listen to what he wanted to hear.***
PRATT: To further his own agenda.
SHELDON: He only furthered his own agenda. So, y’know, he sees a popular guy on radio, he says one thing sideways, and suddenly, y’know what, I can make myself a bigger assclown by going out there and making a name for myself by trying to take a strip off of David Pratt. And, y’know what, I’m not here to defend you, Dave, you can defend yourself just fine, but what I see—and, y’know what, you and I, we chuckle at the poison email we get on a daily basis. I got a poison email today and I read it literally about half an hour ago because I just got home from the golf course, and—I have short man’s complex, I’m a doughboy, and I have a nervous laugh. That’s today. [Laughs.] And I’m over it. But you have every right to be ticked off in the sense that what this fellow did is he did not properly represent your facts.
SHELDON: And that’s the case that I’ve got. That’s the problem that I’ve got here. And there are people that are out there that will take what you say, and they’ll properly digest it, and they’ll come to their own conclusions. And that’s what you’re trying to put out there as an opinion host…. This fellow chose to take it upon himself to not only tell everyone what your opinion was, which was wrong in interpretation to begin with, but then to take the wrong interpretation and tell you that you’re the biggest A-hole this side of the century, because of the fact that you have no kind of—um, what’s the word I’m looking for?—sensitivity towards the gay community when I know from a first-hand account that the first thing you said to me was, “this is a fantastic story. This is a great story. It’s a good story for this fellow, and, moving forward, this is what, y’know, this is what, unfortunately, he’s going to have to look forward to.” And that’s the thing. From a business point of view, does Collins make a team next year? Maybe.
PRATT: Well, this is it. He’s about to turn 35. This is a guy who averages a single point per game. And, even though he’s played only in a defensive role, only averages one and a half rebounds per game. And, again, he’s about to turn 35. Now, if indeed he does go and get a contract with a team, great. If it’s for the right reasons, and he can help them win, yup, there will be a distraction. You’ll have the media and the whole circus will take place, it’s exactly what will happen, and then as soon as he can show his teammates and those fans that he can help them win, then the distraction goes away, just like it did with Jackie Robinson.****
PRATT: This is what I was saying. Apparently, he wasn’t listening to that. The truth of the matter is—
SHELDON: No, he’s sensitive—and the thing is, he’s sensitive to it because it sounds to me like—and, again, I’m just taking from what you said here, that—did he say that he was gay, as well?
SHELDON: Okay. So, basically, he’s trying to tell you that you don’t understand what the gay man’s going through. Or you don’t understand what he’s going through, being a gay man going through what he’s going through. You know what, the think is, we said this the other night on this show, about the fact that there are entertainers in this world, there are authors in this world, there are teachers in this world, there’s all kind of people—nurses, doctors, go right through the gamut of things—of people who are homosexual. So what? Okay. The problem you’ve got here now is that, because it’s on a bigger platform, it’s on a higher stage, now you’ve got political BS like the crap that you just talked about from this guy from Maclean’s that wants to further his own agenda. Do you not think there’ll be a hundred people fold, deep, with that kind of sentiment, trying to rattle that kind of cage, when this guy goes to try and play in the NBA again? You bet your ass there will be. And there’ll be people on both sides taking sides and taking up what it’s about.
PRATT: What I hope is what Jerry Stackhouse from the Brooklyn Nets said never happens. He wants the NBA and Commissioner David Stern to step in and push a button to ensure that Collins gets an offer July 1st. That would be an absolute nightmare. It would undo all the good that he’s done. It would undo it all.
SHELDON: Exactly. It would be a crime to do that. You know, it opens up such a big can of worms when you say that, y’know, because he’s the first guy to do it, that you have to give him special privileges? Is he trying to extend his career? And then, at that point, do you say, did he do it—and, again, being hypothetical here, I don’t think he did it for this reason—did he do it thinking that he might get a break.
SHELDON: I don’t think he did it for that reason…. But that is what is going to be perceived of, if they implement that kind of rule, then the first thing you’re saying is, well, it’s the Collins Rule, he got a break because he’s a homosexual. That’s the last thing you want.
* Not true. Read the piece. “The bigots are never the problem,” I wrote. “The zealots aren’t, either.” The problem is comments like David Pratt’s. Since he’s the problem and the bigots and zealots are not, I’m obviously not calling him a bigot or a zealot.
** This one’s true. Well, actually, I didn’t call David Pratt “asinine.” I called what he said asinine, namely, “that asinine old canard: a gay player is a ‘distraction,’ and, as a consequence, a detriment to his team.”
*** Here are Pratt’s exact words, from approximately 8:19 a.m. Pacific time on Tuesday, April 30th:
PRATT: I was very impressed with how the political correctness of it all kind of came out. But the idea of comparing this to, say, Jackie Robinson I think is just wrong. It’s just wrong. This is historic, but you’re not dealing with the same kind of situation. You just aren’t. And I’m not trying to lessen the importance of this, but Jackie Robinson—
CKNW's RICK QUINTON: Jackie Robinson was good.
PRATT: Yes. There’s the difference. The social change that Jackie Robinson was able to create was because he helped his team win a championship, and that opened up the door to every other black player. Because once the other teams and the fans realized that these black players could play and could win, then you saw the social change. That was the important thing…. Now, the question now becomes, with Jason Collins, if you’re a general manager, do you want that distraction in your room?
PRATT: How does this help an NBA team win basketball games? It doesn’t. But it does open the door to all sorts of different elements of distraction. And all you have to do is take a look at Chris Culliver from the 49ers before the Super Bowl just a few months ago saying that he personally would not welcome a gay member to his team, and a number of his other teammates echoed that and said, y’know, probably about half the NFL, in terms of players, would not welcome it. So, from a general manager’s point of view, if you don’t have to go and bring that distraction into your room, do you do it? Again, it’s about winning, it’s not about social change. The winning has to come first.
QUINTON: And if Collins doesn’t get a new job…
PRATT: What does that do to every other gay player? I mean, he would look at that and say to himself, well, he opened up and he got all that great praise, and he’s out of a job. D’you know what? I’ll live the lie and keep my job. I like what he’s done and I celebrate his courage, but I just don’t want to make that comparison between Jackie Robinson. I just don’t think it’s right.
**** Pratt, on Tuesday: “The idea of comparing this to, say, Jackie Robinson I think is just wrong. It’s just wrong. This is historic, but you’re not dealing with the same kind of situation. You just aren’t.”
