NBA Referee Bill Kennedy Announces He is Gay After Torrent of Slurs from Rajon Rondo [Update]

On December 3 in Mexico City, Rajon Rondo was ejected in the third quarter of a game between his current team, the Sacramento Kings, and his former team, the Boston Celtics. Referee Bill Kennedy initially issued him a technical foul, likely for arguing a foul called against the Kings. Kennedy then walked clear across to the other side of the court, to remove himself from the situation. Rondo was obviously still upset with the technical, so he stalked across the court to confront Kennedy some more, this time staring him down as he approached him. Kennedy hit him with a second technical and ejected him. Then Rondo lost it, calling him a "fucking faggot," among other things.

The NBA investigated the incident and suspended Rondo for one game for "directing a derogatory and offensive term towards a game official and not leaving the court in a timely manner." A lawyer for the Referee's Association provided Yahoo with the game officials' report which included written descriptions of Rondo's verbal attack. Both Kennedy and referee Ben Taylor described Rondo as having said "You're a motherfucking faggot. … You're a fucking faggot, Billy."

Today, less than two weeks later, Bill Kennedy announced that his gay via a statement to Yahoo's Adrian Wojnarowski.

Kennedy has been an NBA referee for 18 years.

Update: Rajon Rondo has commented on his role in the altercation via Twitter. It should be noted that this is not, in fact, an apology, but your standard "sorry if you were offended" non-apology.

My actions during the game were out of frustration and emotion, period!
— Rajon Rondo (@RajonRondo) December 14, 2015

They absolutely do not reflect my feelings toward the LGBT community. I did not mean to offend or disrespect anyone.
— Rajon Rondo (@RajonRondo) December 14, 2015

So, to recap: when Rondo called Bill Kennedy a "motherfucking faggot," he was doing so out of frustration with Kennedy, and his way of letting Kennedy know he was angry and emotional was to call him a "motherfucking faggot." He did not call Bill Kennedy a "motherfucking faggot" because he has an issue with homosexuality or the LGBT community at large. That would be offensive and disrespectful and he did not mean it that way.

[Yahoo]