Adam Silver feared giving Rondo longer suspension would 'out Bill Kennedy'

When the details of the incident that led to Rajon Rondo's one-game suspension were revealed last week, many felt the NBA had been too soft on him - especially given that, in levying its first-ever suspension for a strictly verbal offense, the league had a chance to set a strong precedent.

Rondo's homophobic, slur-laced tirade against referee Bill Kennedy after being ejected from a Dec. 3 game prompted Kennedy to come out as gay, three days after the Sacramento Kings point guard received his suspension.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver explained the light sentence on a podcast with Yahoo Spots' Adrian Wojnarowski on Wednesday, saying he feared a longer suspension would've raised eyebrows, and thereby risked outing Kennedy.

As quoted by ProBasketballTalk's Dan Feldman:

Had I gone let’s say to two games from one game, or even possibly to three games, it would have been clear that something else was going on here, not just what was apparent on TV.

...

And my view – just because the chronology here is important. We made the decision to suspend Rondo for one game on Friday. Bill Kennedy’s decision to become public about being gay was not made until Monday, when you released that story. And he did not talk to me until Sunday, to tell me he had made that decision.

So, I have to say, in the back of my mind, I was concerned about that.

It did not seem appropriate to me that I should, by virtue of a bad act by Rajon Rondo, out Bill Kennedy.

Rondo returns from his suspension Friday night, when the Kings visit the Minnesota Timberwolves.