Sorry, Mark: 'Coming out' won't be about 'cashing in'

Mark Cuban ... yeah, that's pretty much all you have to say sometimes to get the crowd to jump and shriek and point and fingers. Just say the name.

John Amaechi felt he had to wait until his playing days were over to tell the world he's gay. (AP)

On the other hand, if you have the patience to wait for the first two paragraphs, you'll find yourself going, "Mark Cuban?"

He told the Fort Worth Star Telegram (well, not all of it, just Dwain Price) that being the first openly gay NBA player is actually the marketing opportunity of a lifetime, to which one can only ask the musical question, "If that were so, why hasn't Shaquille O'Neal tried it?"

But let's let Cubes explain it in his own words, because, well, we have them handy.

"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 endorsement perspective," he told Price. "You would be an absolute hero to more Americans than you could ever possibly be as an athlete, and that'll put money in your pocket."

And the flip side:

"On the flip side (see?), 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."

Ahh, yes. Nike and Nissan will set you free.

"When you do something the whole would thinks is difficult and you stand up and just be who you are and take on that difficulty factor, you're an American hero no matter what. That's what the American spirit is all about, going against the grain and standing up for who you are, even if it's not a popular position."

There are a lot of other facets to the American spirit as well, but let's let the man finish his thought.

"It's got to be somebody who's strong-willed. He'll put up with some grief. But at the same time, I don't want to compare him to Jackie Robinson, but it's the analogy in a lot of ways. He becomes a role model."

Well, that's a lot to plow through in one sitting, but let's give it a go.

First and foremost, Cuban must be talking about an openly gay athlete in an American team sport, because there are plenty of examples of openly gay tennis players, figure skaters and other individual sports. None of them have cashed in particularly well, but that's not Cuban's argument, at least not as we understand it.