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*Paging the political forum*
He did play in Orlando w/ McGrady ... At the time McGrady made some comment that he believes 5% of the players in the NBA were gay, and that he's witnessed sexual behavior
*Paging the political forum*
I'm not trying to make a political issue of it. Just an observation, more than anything else.
For my little rant, I've spent a ridiculous amount of time this morning trying to figure out who the player might be.
He just wants a way to get some attention/cash. I'm surprised he didn't go to People magazine like Doogie Howser and Lance Bass. Or maybe he did and they turned him down because they didn't know who the he was.
Oh, I know, I was just saying that I'm sure Yoni, GTown, et al. would be happy to answer your question.
For my little rant, I've spent a ridiculous amount of time this morning trying to figure out who the player might be.I'm guilty too... It's not so much the gay thing, it's the way his publicist communicated it.
If you tell me an NBA player likes Mayonnaise and Jelly sandwiches and gave me a few clues about who it is, I'd probably spend a few minutes trying to figure it out.
he does look a little fruity
I met John Amaechi when I was a little kid at Glendale Community College in Arizona. Seemed like a really nice guy, but I was only 10, so I was calling girls gay at that time. I wonder if his autograph will be worth anything now.
depends what pen he used to sign it
Rodman already came out as bisexual, it's just no one paid attention.
Memo to those coming out: If you don't want anyone to pay attention, make the rest of your life such a train wreck and/or spectacle that that's the least of anyone's concerns.
Maybe Karl Malone is the gay... I mean the guy, we are talking about. Retired few seasons ago, no prominent name, looks gay - I think he's a perfect match.
I always thought John Amaechi sucked. I guess I was right.
Wow, that's one of the most fake smiles ever.
As if this former NBA player coming out is the only gay man ever to play in the NBA. There are probably 20-30 gay NBA players currently playing in the league. It's just basic odds that there will be some. Who cares? What they do in their personal life is their business, as long as it's legal.
I'm pretty sure Pau hasn't been traded yet because he and Mike Miller are in a relationship
I agree it SHOULD be no big deal, and I agree that there are probably 20-30 gay NBA players currently playing today, but therein lies the problem. There has never been an out male athlete in the world of professional American sports - NBA, MLB, NFL. There are no doubt hundreds of gay men who have had to hide this part of their lives because they were told it would ruin their careers or make teammates uncomfortable. And that's just really not right.
Of course there's some, but I call bull on that many.
Notice how his shrew wears the jersey of his true love.
Its not right, but it is true. If you want to alienate your teammates, come out of your closet. Sport is a testosterone filled affair. The common theme revolves around the "toughness" of your teammates in clutch situations. Tough is equated with Man-liness, even if not logically true.
wtf?
(New York City) John Amaechi, a former player with the Orlando Jazz and Orlando Magic, has become the first NBA player to come out as gay.
Amaechi will announce publicly for the first time that he is gay on an episode of ESPN's "Outside The Lines" to air Feb. 13, Outsports has learned. His book, published by ESPN Books, "Man In The Middle," in which he chronicles his NBA career and directly addresses the travails of being a closeted professional athlete, will be released the following week.
Amaechi's sexuality has been rumored for years. In an April 2001 column for Outsports, NBA columnist Randy Boyd named Amaechi, then playing with the Orlando Magic, as No. 16 among those in the NBA most likely to be gay.
"Could be that the Nigerian-Brit just operates on a different planet?" Boyd asked in his column. "But then again, that explanation for his atypical behavior wouldn�t be any fun now would it?"
That atypical behavior included a penchant for designing gardens, listening to opera before games and writing poetry.
In Amaechi's first contact with Outsports in December, he asked with his playful sense of humor, "Why wasn't I higher than 16th?"
Outsports has been tracking this story for the last year, as quiet rumblings in private conversations started to surface, and had agreed to embargo a story until just prior to his first TV appearance. However, speculation that Amaechi was coming out has become heavy in the past few days, with his publicist, Howard Bragman, dropping hints at a Super Bowl week party in Miami about an NBA player coming out.
Amaechi contacted Outsports' Cyd Zeigler in December and Outsports introduced Amaechi to Bragman. The publicist had previously handled the coming out of NFL player Esera Tuaolo, golfer Rosie Jones and WNBA superstar Sheryl Swoopes.
Outsports acquired a copy of Amaechi's book last week. It is clearly the work of a thoughtful, intelligent man who has focused even more on developing his character and spirit as he has on his jump shot and rebounding.
The book traces his life from early childhood until he was bought out of his contract with the New York Knicks in early 2004. Along the way it paints the picture of a lonely man who only found community when he gathered the strength to start coming out to friends and family.
Amaechi was raised mostly in England by a single mother. He did not discover basketball until he was well into his teens. He spent one year playing high school basketball in the United States before heading to Vanderbilt, where he played only one season before transferring to Penn State.
Amaechi was a standout on the Penn State basketball team from 1992 to 1995, where he was twice named First Team Academic All-American. He was not drafted, but he became the first undrafted player in league history to start in his first game as a rookie, with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
He followed his time as a Cavalier with three years playing in Europe, where he dated and had a regular boyfriend for a time in England. He returned to the NBA in 1999 and was celibate until he went to the Jazz. His guaranteed contract with the Jazz set his mind at ease, and it was there that he began venturing out to gay establishments and building a mostly gay circle of friends (the first wide circle of friends of his life, according to the book).
"Those grumpy social conservatives who continue to insist that gay life is lonely and unhappy have obviously never met my friends," Amaechi wrote.
He writes of his first sexual experience in the United States, and how the Utah Jazz and Salt Lake City, controlled by the Latter Day Saints, was an odd backdrop for what felt like his coming out party. He also acknowledges that those in gay clubs like New York's Splash and Los Angeles' Abbey who have claimed in the past to have spotted him there while he was with the Jazz may, in fact, have done so.
"By the end of my second Utah season, I was practically daring reporters to take the bait and out me," he wrote. "But it never happened. My sexuality, I felt, had become an open secret, which was fine by me. I'd left enough open to interpretation that su ions were gaining momentum."
In a 2002 interview with the Scotsman newspaper, Amaechi had this to say about the subject of gays in the NBA: "If you look at our league, minorities aren't very well represented. There's hardly any Hispanic players, no Asian-Americans, so that there's no openly gay players is no real surprise. It would be like an alien dropping down from space. There'd be fear, then panic: they just wouldn't know how to handle it."
The book also offers insight into the closed world of professional sports, including Amaechi's spirited and friendly political arguments with Karl Malone, what he called the betrayal of Orlando Magic management, kind words from former Indiana coach Bobby Knight, his regret that he never told Greg Ostertag, "the gentle big man" whom he respected, that he was gay when Ostertag asked him while they played together in Utah, his respect for then-Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy, and his lack of respect for Jazz coach Jerry Sloan.
"Unbeknownst to me at the time," Amaechi wrote, "Sloan had used some anti-gay innuendo to describe me. It was confirmed via e-mails from friends who worked in high-level front-office jobs with the Jazz."
On the court, Amaechi played in 301 games over five seasons, ending in 2003 with the Utah Jazz. His best seasons were in 1999-2000 and 2000-2001 when he started 89 games for the Orlando Magic. His career high for points came in a 2000 game against Denver, when he scored 31.
While the book gives a glimpse into the life of the first openly gay former NBA player, it more importantly paints a picture of a man whose dedication to philanthropy once led him to turn down a $17 million contract with the Los Angeles Lakers. It was for his philanthropic work and motivational-speaking endeavors that he was a 2006 recipient of the Penn State Alumni Achievement Award.
Amaechi, listed on the website 100 Great Black Britons, now runs the ABC Foundation, designed "to get kids playing sports," according to his website. "The ABC Foundation aims to increase participation in physical activity and holistic support services by building affordable, quality facilities and making expert coaches, respected mentors and educators available to all young people." The foundation's first sports center was built in Manchester, England, close to his childhood home of Stockport.
Amaechi embraces his position as role model for kids with as much vigor as so many professional athletes try to distance themselves from it.
"It would be nice to one day see one of these kids play in the NBA," Amaechi wrote. "But that's not what gets me up in the morning. It's a chance to change the culture, at least for a few kids."
Amaechi also owns Animus Consulting. The company, according to its Web site, offers a "range of programs � tailored to inspire, motivate, challenge and entertain in the pursuit of individual and group development - in a way that directly impacts the bottom line."
Said Boyd of Amaechi's coming out: "Hopefully it will be an inspiration to people who are hetero-identified to be more tolerant and to not assume that all 10 players on a given court have sex the same way they have sex."
Steve Francis + Cuttino Mobley
Does anyone assume that there's all kinds of ways to have sex. When the Spurs are playing the Lakers I don't assume all 10 players have sex the same way. There's at least one player out there that has sex so different it's illegal in all 50 states AND Puerto Rico.Said Boyd of Amaechi's coming out: "Hopefully it will be an inspiration to people who are hetero-identified to be more tolerant and to not assume that all 10 players on a given court have sex the same way they have sex."
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