Dear Gilbert,
Let me start by saying this letter isn’t necessarily for you and I know that you could care less what I have to say but since you took it upon yourself to ridicule and insult an entire group of women I felt it necessary to send a message to young girls and women who may have caught wind of your antics.
I really hate that this happened because as a native Washingtonian I was a fan of yours Gilbert. I am a Wizards fan and you brought excitement to our city. You were different, you had charisma and on top of that you were a pretty damn good ball player. I even bought into the whole hibachi craze with your buzzer-beating game winners. I was excited when you lead us to four consecutive playoff seasons. Yea we lost in the first round three years in a row but still. I could finally represent my home team and not hear a bunch of hate from the haters. We loved you Gil, the entire city was on your side. We even rooted for you when you were traded to Orlando. The hibachi grill was definitely turned off but we still wanted the best for you.
But we all know you crave attention Gilbert. Everyone knows this. A quick scroll down your Instagram feed is a dead giveaway. Besides, what professional athlete brings guns into their locker room to threaten a teammate? Seriously, I know you didn’t graduate from college but a degree doesn’t give you common sense and that was just stupid. Honestly, we shouldn’t be surprised about what you said about the women in the WNBA. How can we be surprised when you publicly disrespect the mother of your children? A woman who apparently isn’t as bad as you make her out to be or you wouldn’t have had four children with her. Or would you? There’s that common sense again. Yea you’re rich. Yea you’ve made well over 100 million dollars during your NBA career. Yea you stole checks for years from the Wizards with that awful 6 year 111 million dollar deal they gave you but money doesn’t make one happy and clearly you are miserable with your own life or just plain bored.
So here you are with your Instagram fingers going to town about the women of the WNBA. Despite what you say, you seem to know a lot more than most about our league. You knew its inception year, you claim to not know where Tulsa is but you know they had a team and you also know a player on the team. In addition, you went on to name a few other players around the league and I know for a fact that you know a lot more than the ones you named. Lets be clear, I couldn’t care less about anything you have to say. Your words don’t affect me one bit, you don’t cut a single check of mine and at this point your support is not wanted or even needed. Either way, your Instagram posts were offensive to say the least to many women and men.
First of all, when did fans start showing up to sporting events based on the looks and uniforms of the players? If that were the case, going off looks, I’m pretty sure the Verizon Center wouldn’t have been filled to get a glimpse of Agent Zero. But really, thongs and a bra? Is that what America was hoping for when they announced the WNBA as you claimed? This really is quite laughable. But beyond the absurdity of your thoughts what makes you think women would want to prance around half naked playing sports? For your pleasure? We take sports just as seriously as you once did. We are dedicated, committed and work just as hard if not harder than many of our male counterparts. Did we ask you to dunk wearing a speedo and no shirt? How interesting would that be? I think it would be quite disgusting but do you see how dumb that sounds? But one post wasn’t enough for you Gilbert. You didn’t like the responses you were getting, you’re loving the attention since without basketball nobody seems to care what’s going on with you but you had to clap back at those who didn’t find your posts funny. You go on to claim that the lesbians of the WNBA would be interested in sleeping with you. This is probably the the most bizarre post of the three. The women of the WNBA are “boogawolfs” but you’d like to convince them that you are a “lesbian starter kit?” I’m guessing that means you want them to consider sharing themselves with you. Make up your mind Gil. But that still wasn’t enough! You made another post making sure that everyone knows how you feel about their thoughts on what you had to say. Fu*$ them! No Gilbert fu*$ you and your misogynistic, disrespect and objectification of women who are simply living out their dreams. Women who make the same sacrifices you made to become a professional athlete.
Women of the WNBA aren’t just basketball players but they are role models, community leaders, entrepreneurs, and college graduates. They are world travelers, coaches, moms, and wives. They are beautiful! They are pioneers who are laying the foundation for generations to come. You would think you would be an ally Gil, a brother in basketball, but I guess not. The saddest part of it all is that you have a daughter. And one day when your daughter grows up she may aspire to be like her father and play professional basketball. Its sad to say she will be highly disappointed with what her father thinks about her hopes and dreams. I do hope by then you will have realized the severity of your words. Either way, young girls will continue to play basketball, they will continue to look up to the women of the WNBA and we will continue to set examples for these young girls to believe in themselves and to follow their dreams despite what some washed up former NBA player has to say about it. By the way, Orange Is The New Black is a great show! You should definitely check it out on Netflix if you haven’t already. I’m sure you have plenty of time to do so.
–Unbothered