As I’m sure you’ve read elsewhere, Knicks interim head coach Kurt Rambis — suddenly nostalgic for the days when his biggest problem was getting decapitated by Kevin McHale — found himself the object of widespread giggles when an intrepid GQ reporter discovered that Rambis had recently liked a Twitter post “that included a sexy pornographic picture of a lady masturbating.” Wrote the mag’s sneering, leering Jack Moore (IF THAT IS HIS REAL NAME, jack-more, GET IT?), “I’m all for sex positivity, so I say let your freak flag fly, Kurt. If you enjoy looking at photos of Asian girls masturbating, then by all means you should fav the shit out of them. But just be ready to own it…but if you’re an easily embarrassed person, just don’t click that heart.”
Moore has a pretty interesting version of sex positivity. On one hand, he claims to have no problem with Rambis viewing explicit materials, but also adds conditions like, “be ready to own it”. Because why else would Rambis be embarrassed if there wasn’t a stalky journalist keeping track of his Twitter likes?
Clearly, the coach is embarrassed, hence MSG’s likely story that Rambis was hacked (there’s really no need to detail all the reasons why that’s bullshit). But rather than meet Moore’s standard of “owning it”, wouldn’t it have been cooler for Rambis to reply, “what sort of adult spends his or her time patrolling someone else’s internet habits?”
There’s something deeply wrong in how this victimless bit of social media carelessness has seemingly caused greater alarm for Rambis’ employer than Isiah Thomas’ treatment of Anucha Browne-Sanders. At last check, Rambis is not an elementary school teacher, he’s not a man of the cloth, and he’s not an elected official. How is calling attention to his apparent interest in pornography of great public interest? It would be one thing were he an an anti-masturbation crusader like Andy Pettitte. Or if, for instance, he maintained a museum-level archive like that of Hideki Matsui. Are we to believe that none of GQ’s readers have ever viewed materials similar to the tweet that caught Rambis’ eye? Is having this in one’s browser history (or, if you prefer, working for the company that produces it) any more or less shameful?
Laughs aside, perhaps public figures like Kurt Rambis wouldn’t feel obliged to give ridiculous excuses if media & fans alike simply acknowledged that porn-is-very-popular. Is the resulting web traffic really worth shaming a person over something that isn’t particularly shameful? You tell me, Jack Moore.