Adam Silver Says Rajon Rondo Only Received One-Game Suspension Because NBA Didn’t Want to Out Gay Referee

Late last week, Rajon Rondo received a one-game suspension from the NBA for “directing a derogatory and offensive term towards a game official” during a game against the Celtics earlier this month. At the time, that suspension seemed appropriate, given the situation. But after a Yahoo! Sports report revealed that Rondo had directed a homosexual slur towards NBA referee Bill Kennedy, who told Yahoo! Sports that he is gay in the same report, that one-game suspension no longer seemed appropriate. And a lot of people wondered why he didn’t receive a longer suspension as a result of what he said.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver appeared on the debut episode of Adrian Wojnarowski’s new The Vertical podcast today and was asked that question. He responded by saying that the league didn’t hand Rondo a longer suspension because they were afraid that it might end up inadvertently outing Kennedy.

“I was of the view that by making [the suspension] two games or three games, it would have been clear something else is going on here and not just what was apparent on TV,” Silver said on the podcast. “In the back of my mind, I was concerned. It did not seem appropriate to me that I should—because of a bad act by Rajon Rondo—out Bill Kennedy…You try the best you can in the context of the situation. In the context of the situation, Bill Kennedy had not chosen to let the world know that he was gay. So a one-game suspension seemed appropriate.”

Are you buying that line of reasoning?

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