ESPN's Gay Week (B-story to Rivarly Week)

While the A-story this week at ESPN is Rivarly Week, the B-story is the John Amaechi story. ESPN has just redefined the way to manufacture stories for profit:

ESPN Books will be publishing his book with a pun-inviting title "Man in the middle" (currently ranked #349 in the Amazon Book Best Seller list)

ESPN the Magazine will be having an interview

ESPN Sunday's "OUTside the Lines" just added another pun to its name - it will have an exclusive interview with John Amaechi's coming out story. If this was Comedy Central they would change the OTL graphics to go all pink and gay, but ESPN would probably get in trouble if they did that.

Penn State finds itself in the middle of two "gays in sports" stories: The Rene Portland discrimination case (settlement) where she allegedly discriminated against a heterosexual player because she was not feminine enough for her standards (or liking perhaps?), and the ESPN John Amaechi story.

DeadSpin.com has an inside scoop on some of the stories in the book, and a dead-spin take on the story. Others covering the story: AOL Sports, yaysports.com, Sportsline

As expected the story created some buzz, with reaction by many people including Charles Barkley, David Stern worried his league will be re-branded as NBGay, Doc Rivers, PTI, and even LeBron James. LeBron's comments, as pointed out by the award-winning PTI duo, show the value of life experience and perhaps a college education when commenting on hot-button social issues. Let's not forget that LeBron, - insert Greg Escherick's "he is just a kid!" audio link here. Then again there is the sophisticated Duke education showcased in Shav Randolph's comments