The small, exclusive club of openly gay professional male athletes has a new member.
Former NBA center John Amaechi, who spent five seasons with four teams, yesterday became the first NBA player to publicly come out.
His disclosure comes three years after his playing career ended, making him the sixth professional male athlete from one of the four major U.S. sports – basketball, baseball, football, hockey – to openly discuss his homosexuality.
Amaechi details his life in his autobiography “Man in the Middle,” which will be released Feb. 14.
“He is coming out of the closet as a gay man,” Amaechi's publicist Howard Bragman said.
Martina Navratilova, perhaps the most famous openly gay athlete in the world, praised Amaechi's decision and said it's imperative for athletes to come out because of what she called an epidemic of suicides among young lesbians and gays.
“It's hugely important for the kids so they don't feel alone in the world. We're role models,” she said. “He will definitely help a lot of kids growing up to feel better about themselves.”
Orlando's Grant Hill, who said he didn't know Amaechi when he was with the Magic, also applauded the decision to go public.
“The fact that John has done this, maybe it will give others the comfort or confidence to come out as well, whether they are playing or retiring,” Hill said.
LeBron James, however, said he didn't think an openly gay person could survive in the league.
“With teammates you have to be trustworthy, and if you're gay and you're not admitting that you are, then you are not trustworthy,” James said. “So that's like the No. 1 thing as teammates – we all trust each other. You've heard of the in-room, locker room code. What happens in the locker room stays in there. It's a trust factor, honestly. A big trust factor.”
In his book, Amaechi describes the challenge of being gay in a league where it's assumed all players are heterosexual. He describes the blatant anti-gay language and attitudes he experienced in NBA locker rooms.
Amaechi also writes that while playing in Utah, coach Jerry Sloan used anti-gay innuendo to describe him. Sloan said yesterday that although his relationship with Amaechi was “shaky” because of the player's attitude, he didn't know Amaechi was gay.
