Gay Superstar?

Mark Cuban believes that the first homosexual male pro athlete to come out while still playing will become a Super Gay Brand unto themselves, and reap gazillions of dollars. Don't know if I buy that. John Amaechi, the man in the middle himself, pointed out that Martina Navratilova lost every endorsement she had when she came out in her (late) prime. Cuban mentions Jackie Robinson as a semi-equivalent but I don't see any record of Jackie doing Ford truck ads in the 50's.

It's anyone's guess how the first publicly gay pro would be received. But, I'm just throwing names out here, what if it was some uber-respected star like Grant Hill? People would diss Grant Hill? Now if it was just a regular shmo player I think a big part of the league would shun him, the daily (minute-ly?) pressure would mount and he'd be out of the league within a year. So can't Grant Hill just pretend he's gay, have everybody be ok with it, pave the way for others, and then get back to doin his heterosexual thing? Come on Grant, take one for the teams!

"From a marketing perspective, if you're a player who happens to be gay and you want to be incredibly rich, then you should come out, because it would be the best thing that ever happened to you from a marketing and an endorsement perspective," Cuban told the newspaper. "You would be an absolute hero to more Americans than you can ever possibly be as an athlete, and that'll put money in your pocket."

Maybe.

But Cuban's definitely right on his flip side, as we witness Tim "get that" Hard(thing)away "from me" killer crossover his reputation into John Rocker oblivion today.

Cuban: "On the flip side, if you're the idiot who condemns somebody because they're gay, then you're going to be ostracized, you're going to be picketed and you're going to ruin whatever marketing endorsements you have."

Yes.