Team spirit.

I was hardly surprised that Shaquille O'Neal would offer the most enlightened reaction to John Amaechi's heartening coming-out story ["All of Me," March 13]. During my recent two-year stint as a sports reporter for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, the Miami Heat's larger-than-life center had always shown himself to be a stand-up guy. Not only did be make good on his promise to deliver an NBA championship to Miami, the big guy could also be counted on to do the right thing off the court, like when he alerted and assisted Miami Beach police in the arrest of a suspect whom he allegedly witnessed harassing and attacking a gay couple.

Although other NBA stars, including LeBron James, offered predictions of gloom and doom to any gay player who might be pondering the prospect of coming out during his playing days, Shaq's far more optimistic view in Greg Hernandez's sidebar, "Gay in the NBA: The Buzz," didn't let me down. Hernandez wrote, "Shaquille O'Neal believes locker-room mentality could work in a gay players favor by rallying his teammates to his defense."

Knowing Shaq's enlightened view, I can't help but wonder what might have happened had Amaechi accepted the multimillion-dollar offer from the Shaq-led Lakers a few years back instead of giving the Orlando Magic a hometown discount. It's entirely possible that we wouldn't still be waiting for the first active player in the NBA, NFL, NHL, and Major League Baseball to come out.

ED GRAY Boston, Mass.

I am not taking a side on the male pro athlete coming-out debate. But Anne Stockwell's interview with John Amaechi and your companion article by Jeff Pearlman ["Big League Hate"] gloss over a bigger issue: our complacency with hate. Several years ago I made my final New Year's resolution. I say "final" because I have continually worked at incorporating the resolution into my life. I resolved to think every time I am tempted to use the word "hate." Even excluding John Rocker's rants, it is a word used too commonly and often inappropriately. There are situations in which it is the most appropriate word; however, there are very few things, or people, I hate. The capricious use of the word to describe our feelings about colors, places, and things not only dilutes the strength of a powerful word but also keeps the emotion alive. We all need to make an effort to expand our vocabulary and find more appropriate words. As we remove "hate" from our speech, perhaps it will be removed from our behavior as well.

GREGORY DUDZEK Wilton Manors, Fla.

I was a bit confused by Anne Stockwell's statement "what we expect of our heroes." Is she saying athletes are heroes? A hero is someone with great strength of character or who has shown great courage. Athletes, as a group, do not have these qualities. The term hero has been bastardized in the last few years to denote anyone in the public eye who does something out of the ordinary in their field. Alas, what one is able to do with a ball does not make one a hero. A hero is one who despite personal danger to oneself (physical, emotional, financial) does the right thing. This takes a great deal of courage and bravery. This is lacking in most people in the public eye.

JAMES C. OBERKROM Austin, Texas