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

There is a good deal of truth to what Cuban says, because the American spirit can be defined as a single individual fighting the good fight. And yes, Jackie Robinson is a hell of a good analogy, and so is Muhammad Ali.

But the American spirit is also very often punished cruelly and surely, only to be resurrected much later, often after the recipient is dead. Say, like Jack Johnson. And with all due respect to Cubes' marketing expertise, dead isn't a big seller except maybe to Doris Kearns Goodwin.

Secondly, openly gay did remarkably little for the marketing profile of Martina Navratilova, who isn't dead, and if you can find someone more willing to stand up to the power of conservative American thought than her, then God bless you.

And finally, there's just something slightly creepy coming out as a marketing strategy.

Now we understand that Cuban is fighting the good fight here, albeit from a purely capitalist perspective (as opposed to, say, a socialist, communist or anarcho-syndicalist perspective). In addition, that part about the athletes who outwardly oppose an openly gay contemporary would take a severe public throttling rings particularly true (see John Rocker for the reward of leading with your mouth rather than your head).

But the reward for coming out still should be measured carefully against the retribution, and given what we know about the hysterical reaction to Janet Jackson's exposed hooter, we should remember how mighty the retribution can be. America isn't as open-minded as it likes to think it is, and the first one out is the one who will pay full retail for his or her courage.

What might actually happen in Cuban's scenario is in fact this: The first openly gay athlete in a team sport (which we presume is what he actually means here) will be roundly crushed both inside and outside the sport, lionized by some media members, ignored by others and fairly well ignored by the folks who sell things to other folks.

Maybe the second one cashes in, or the third, or the 30th. We are also a society that can get used to societal changes, albeit at a hideously glacial pace. But the first one is falling on the grenade to save the platoon, because with all due respect to Cuban's better nature, Nike and Nissan sets nobody free. It isn't what they do, or what they want to do. Companies are, frankly, not philosophically equipped to do the right thing until the focus groups have finished, and focus groups are particularly poor at social advancement.

So what Cuban is saying is noble, and inspiring, and quite likely dead wrong. The better bet is that the first openly gay athlete gets to commit career suicide for those who follow, and that's not marketing, that's martyrdom.

And if this doesn't convince him, he might want to take a spin around the news channels, where the open debate is whether America is ready for a black president, or a woman president. Never mind that America is still trying to get ready for an honest and competent president; we are still wondering if America is ready to embrace two articles of the Constitution that predate FDR.

All points to Mark Cuban for trying, and he is probably right in a purely academic and hypothetical sense, but the lesson of John Amaechi is that gay athletes aren't ready to be open yet, and we suspect that they're not keeping silent and closeted because their agents haven't gotten the right ad pitch. We suspect that one gay athlete will know when it's worth it to come out, and it won't be the money that does it.

Ray Ratto is a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle.