Amar’e Stoudemire Says He’d Go Out of His Way to Avoid a Gay Teammate

Amar’e Stoudemire loosed some homophobic comments this week when a reporter from Israel’s Walla website asked him whether he’d be OK with having a gay teammate. Wearing a “spiritual gangster” sweatshirt and a grin, Stoudemire, who plays professionally in Israel after a 16-year NBA career, said he’d shower across the street, make sure his change of clothes would be around the corner, and that he’d take a different route to the gym.

After the interviewer asked him if he was joking, Stoudemire said, “I mean, there’s always a truth within a joke.” Well, at least we know he was being honest then.

Ex-NBA player John Amaeche, who is gay, called Stoudemire’s recent comments “petulant” and “puerile.”

In 2012, Stoudemire got into it with on Twitter with someone who told him to step up his game. Stoudemire called him a “fag.” He later apologized.

As Sam Kestenbaum of The Forward points out, Stoudemire had just received “Israel’s Martin Luther King Jr. Award for his philanthropic work” days prior to making these comments.

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