It was in the second quarter of the Olympic men’s basketball match between the USA and Serbia that TV analyst and NBA superstar Dwyane Wade announced LeBron James’ pronouns.
It left many scratching their heads, even as others likely cheered.
Jrue Holiday fed LeBron James with a perfect pass with an open baseline as a runway. You, I and Bron Bron know what came next — The dunk is there.
The call from Wade, who has a transgender daughter Zaya, is something neither I, nor literally anyone in the viewing audience, saw coming.
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“Y’all know his pronouns,” Wade exclaimed about James. “We talkin’ about him all night. You know his pronouns HE’S HE/HIM!”
Being a person who has done some sportscasting in her life, I admit that it made me chuckle. Wade was solidly Vitale-esque. A nice, if a tad clunky, usage of the current sports vernacular to hype an exceptional player.
LeBron James is just that good, thus he’s “HIM.”
Being trans, and having dealt with pronoun jokes used as weapons of constant transphobia, his catch phrase was a refreshing change. Not too surprising given that Wade is an outspoken parent of a transgender daughter who stands in allyship. To me, this hit as an unintended — understated but appreciated — nod of support and I’m here for it.
I’m here for it, even if Wade went to the well once too often. Late in the second quarter, he went there again.
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“America y’all know him as Kevin Durant! I know him personally! His pronouns are he/him.”
He went there once more in the second half and on X after the game. D Wade, you have a good thing going here so don’t wear it out. Save it for the medal round at least.
As expected, some people had to be critics — of other Wade’s TV analysis or the pronouns declaration.
If you want to flag Wade for a droll line in your view, fine. Inexperienced and experienced commentators alike are prone to overdoing a line. We’re sportscasters and that is what we do sometimes and you’ll hear much of that with the varied broadcast crews and events at the Olympic Games.
One viewer, via X, had perhaps the best quip on it all.
However, for a good number of people including those who make a living out of transphobia, it was just another chance to take a jab at transgender people. One representative of a known anti-LGBTQ organization howled that on their X presence, “Somebody get Dwayne [sic] Wade out of the booth please.”
Other armchair critics got personal. One posted on X, “How much longer is Dwyane Wade going to shove the ‘pronouns’ down our throats? Just because he allows his son to pretend to be a girl doesn’t mean we need to hear him say every 5 minutes: ‘LeBron James—he/him’. It’s desperate, despicable, and embarrassing.”
Such is the latest example of uptightness where are seeing from certain sectors American public since the opening ceremonies Friday. Most of it just for the sake of finding something to gripe about, whether its drag queens carrying the Olympic torch, the “Last Supper that wasn’t” or Katie Ledecky’s “washed” because she got a bronze in perhaps her weakest event.
Really America, let’s do something different this Olympics. Let’s chill out.
If you were griping about drag and Dionysus, you missed a cool procession of athletes on boats along on the Seine. It was a good idea, but the weather didn’t cooperate so c’est la vie. You missed Gaga, Les Mis, and Celine Dion winning a gold medal for best comeback performance.
In the last 24 hours alone, you’ve had Leon Marchand fire up his hometown so much that a loud crowd starting singing La Marseillaise before his 400-meter individual medley final started. They figured that they should beat the rush and do the anthem now. Needless to say, the swimming megastar won handily.
There was 16-year-old Korean Ban Hyojin, who won the women’s air rifle event and the first day of school. “What did you do over the school break? I won an Olympic gold medal.”
Team LGBTQ has some hardware on the board. Well done Amandine Buchard, Lauren Scruggs, and Tom Daley!
We have Snoop Dogg carrying the torch? Flavor Flav as USA Water Polo superfan? If somebody told me 30 years ago, that these two would be revered like this, I’m sure that there were on whatever strain Snoop is puffing on. Yet, here they are living their best lives on NBC and here we are enjoying it.
Embrace the fun and lighten up, America. You have all election season to be outraged.
And to those who feel these Paris Olympics are too “woke” and “gay”? Just wait four years when the Summer Olympics are in Los Angeles.
To quote that famous hip Californian Ronald Reagan: “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”
