All Star Game Hot Topic

What will the HOT TOPIC be at the All-Star game? According to Marc Stein of ESPN.com: "I'd say it's an off-the-board lock that the question every player gets over and over in Vegas will be John Amaechi-related. Or, more specifically: How would you handle an openly gay teammate?

The problem?

This is one of those questions that, hard as anyone tries, probably can't be answered conclusively until there actually is an openly gay NBA player.

There will naturally be plenty of tangible responses to the question to record or scribble down, but this would be one of those subjects where pretty much everyone is speculating. Steve Nash said it pretty well Thursday when he offered: "It's a very difficult situation to envision at this point because we haven't faced it."

No less an expert than Amaechi voiced that uncertainty back in 2002, years before revealing anything. In a Scotland on Sunday interview, Amaechi said at the time: "It would be like an alien dropping down from space. There'd be fear, then panic. [The NBA] just wouldn't know how to handle it."

My suspicion is that, even though he was exaggerating some, Amaechi is not far off, unless you believe something has changed in the five years since he made the argument.

I doubt it. Not inside NBA locker rooms."

Read more of Stein's article.