By now everyone has heard and everyone is talking.

Former NBA player John Amaechi has revealed the he is a gay man, becoming the first current or retired NBA player to admit to being homosexual.

This revelation thrust the issue of homosexuality in sports out into the open. The admittance sparked questions and emotions from NBA players, coaches and fans.

But does sexual orientation really matter in the testosterone-fueled world of professional sports? After all, we are in 2007.

Most athletes and coaches have said “no,” it doesn’t matter. Current NBA players have said that as long as that player is putting up numbers and helping to contribute to wins, sexual orientation wouldn’t make a difference in how that player is treated.

Although their intentions are good I find the statement hard to believe.

It was one of those crazy Super Bowl commercials that got the world talking. Everyone had seen the two men that “shared,” a snickers candy bar, but the act that the zany candy commercial simulated gave most viewers the heebiest-of-jeebies. Had the commercial featured Would we have felt the same if it was two female lingerie models instead of two sweaty men working on a car, the commercial might have been heralded as the greatest Super Bowl commercial ever and candy bar sales would have soared.

It was the knee-jerk reactions to that commercial that lead me to believe that unfortunately, a player’s orientation does matter.

We as fans will never know exactly what goes on inside the players’ locker room or the practice facility. While everything on the surface appears to be normal and happy what goes on behind closed doors is another story.

The face of the NBA, LaBron James has said “With teammates you have to be trustworthy, and if you’re gay and you’re not admitting that you are, then you are not trustworthy,” James said. “So that’s like the No. 1 thing as teammates — we all trust each other. You’ve heard of the in-room, locker room code. What happens in the locker room stays in there. It’s a trust factor, honestly. A big trust factor.”

That statement is a bit short-sighted and selective. What about all of those other secrets LaBron? Like illegal drug use, possession of guns and spousal abuse? How do these secrets play out in the locker room?

Let’s go one step further, LaBron. Say you were on a road trip and saw a married teammate bedding down with a woman that was not his wife – that would be OK as long was he was honest with you about it right? You might say that although morally questionable, it’s his business. What he does behind closed doors is up to him and it’s none of your business, right? How can a gay player’s decision to keep his sexuality HIS business be any different?

Another disturbing statement has come from injured Philadelphia player Shavlik Randolph. “As long as you don’t bring your gayness on me I’m fine,” Randolph said.

“Gayness,” this immature term used as if homosexuality could be contagious.

NBA Commissioner David Stern has said the NBA is a diverse league and could tolerate issues of sexuality. But the diversity that Stern referred to has always been racial and ethnic – not sexual.

Amaechi retired in 2004 and averaged 6.2 points and 2.6 rebounds per game in five seasons in the NBA and has said he felt anti-gay prejudice from other players and even his coach. He has said that while a member of the Utah Jazz, his then coach Jerry Sloan used an anti-gay innuendo to describe the player. This was long before Amaechi decided to “come out.”

All it took was the suspicion of being gay. No athlete, on any level is ever persecuted for the suspicion of being black, Hispanic, French or whatever.

While Amaechi has come forward to help others feel like they are not alone and to give a voice to a silent population of athletes, we are far away from tolerance in sports as well as society.