Former NBA player coming out of the closet on Valentine's day?

What I would find interesting is whether outlaw or Omega Supreme could have told already.

 

He didn't tell me he was gay when I had sex with him.

 

I'm gay, says British basketball star

http://timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/us_sport/article1347000.ece

John Amaechi is first male basketball player to come out in US
Ian Whittell for The Times

John Amaechi, a former NBA player and England basketball international, is to publish a book next week in which he will reveal he is gay.

The autobiography, entitled Man in the Middle, will detail his six seasons in the world's leading basketball league and its release is being eagerly awaited in the United States .

The publishers of the book, ESPN, have refused to reveal the identity of the author although it it understood he will appear on their television station and in their magazine next week in advance of the February 20 publication date.

Sources in the United States have confirmed that the 6' 10" Amaechi, 36, is the player in question.

Amaechi, born in the United States but raised in Stockport, will be the first prominent British sportsman to make public his homosexuality since the late footballer Justin Fashanu in the late 1980s.

While Amaechi's announcement will be met with interest in Britain, it is being anticipated feverishly in the United States where no male basketball player has come out as gay before. NBA teams and officials are steeling themselves for Amaechi's revelations and whether or not he will discuss the sexual orientation of other players.

Initial leaks from the States seem to suggest that his former coach at the Utah Jazz, Jerry Sloan, is the object of Amaechi's anger in his book and is accused of being homophobic.

"Unbeknownst to me at the time," Amaechi writes, "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."

The son of an absent Nigerian father, Amachi was raised by his mother, a Stockport doctor, and attended Stockport Grammar School before his basketball talent took him to high school in America. He played at two different colleges, the start of a trend of frequently changing clubs throughout his playing career, and signed for the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA after graduation in 1995.

After just 28 games, he moved to Europe and played for the French clubs Cholet and Limoges, Bologna in Italy, Greece's Panathinaikos and the Sheffield Sharks in the British Basketball League, five teams in the next three years.

Amaechi returned to the NBA with the Orlando Magic in 1999-2000 and enjoyed his best season, earning him a $10 million (£5 million), four-year contract.

After one more season in Orlando, Amaechi was traded to the Utah Jazz for two more seasons prior to a spectacular fall from grace which saw him not used at all at the start of the 2003-04 season. There followed trades to the Houston Rockets and New York Knicks but neither club ever played Amaechi and the latter eventually paid up his contract and released him.

Since retiring, Amaechi became well known in Britain for his television appearances and his work with children. He has helped fund the Amaechi Basketball Centre, run by his schoolboy coach Joe Forber, in Whalley Range, Manchester.

Nothing in his playing career will compare with the impact he is about to make with the release of his biography. No male basketball player has come out as gay and only a handful of men in other team sports have done so.

Billy Bean, a small-time American baseball player, created a stir when he published a biography in which he revealed his homosexuality and Esera Tuaolo, an American football player for nine years in the NFL, did likewise in a magazine article in 2002.

High-profile women's basketball star Sheryl Swoopes did the same last year but, with the NBA known for its machismo and womanising players, no male star has made such a revelation.

 

Eh, no big surprise.

Glad to see there'll be some Sloan-bashing though.

 

Yeah, Sloan and Malone are definite homophobes. I hope the media goes to town on him and makes him respond.

 

Man boobs

edit: man, i'm so late on this.

 

Who cares? Basketball is a gay sport, anyway. I mean, think about it- one of the most important aspects of the game is that you flick your wrists while shooting. Isn't shooting a basketball a typical symbol of gay pride?

And what about hand-checking? You mean to tell me putting your hands on another man isn't an example of latent homosexuality?

How about the object in which you throw the basketball? Isn't that called the rim? What do you think they mean when they say the ball "rimmed out?"

And then there's the way they dress. In other sports, players are fully dressed. In basketball, they wear as little clothes as possible. Wouldn't that be considered somewhat symbolic of a gay movement?

Let's face it- we all watch a very gay sport, which probably makes all of us gay, in some way. So the next time you watch the Rockets, just think, "It's good to be gay."

 

im surprised none of the anti-JVG peeps are quoting the statement "THEN-Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy" like he's been fired or something

 

Sloans use of slurs at work, if true, is offensive, but wasn't the part about Malone in the book's synopsis favorable?

Malone's homophobia accusation originated from his comment about being afraid of contracting HIV from contact with infected blood during a game (not an unreasonable fear, I think, given that this is a recognized means of transmission and how often he bled and made others bleed on the court). I'm no fan of Malone, but I never understood the suggestion that he's significantly less tolerent than the average NBA player.

I think people see what they want to see...

 

lets not forget about the post.

 

Oh, we can go on and on. I mean, c'mon, our best player (who is not currently on the injured list) has a first name largely associated with females. Our team color is red, closer to pink than blue. What about the hook shot? For those of you out there who play basketball, don't even try to tell me that you don't feel feminine when you attempt this type of shot.

When it comes down to it, that's really why the dunk is so popular- it's basically a homophobic reaction to the notion that basketball is a non-masculine sport.

 

John Amaechi had a great year here in Orlando as part of the Doc Rivers Heart and Hustle team which got Doc "Coach of the Year" (the year before Tmac came to Orlando).

He played like a freaking all star that year. Great guy

They actaully used to have a sports section in teh Orlando Sentinel, "Cup of Tea with John Amaechi". He really was fond of his British tea.

It was funny.

Good for John

 

they better "stick" it to Sloan

 

Yeah, jumping out of the gym while showing unbelievable hand eye coordination and displaing all sorts of athleticism is a homophobic reaction, while giving somebody a concussion (football) is some good wholesome heterosexual expression. What you're saying is if you're not killing someone, then you're not a man's man

Basketball is my favorite sport by far. Quickness, strength, finesse, athleticism, endurance, coordination all combined in one sport. You can take any thug of a prison and unleash them and they can play football.

Basketball requires special talents. Everybody is strong and quick in basketball. But they also have so many more skills.

 

ex NBA player comes out of closet

he guys...dunno if this is already posted...but it was john amaechi...former rocket too..........


http://www.newsday.com/sports/print...3909feb07,0,552042.story?coll=ny-sports-print

 

yeah and greg anthony said something about theres at least one gay dude per NBA team, so whos ours??

 

Padgett.

 

Vspan

 

Don't even get me started on "taking it to the hole" and "backdoor play"

 

Hotballa, how did you get the "inside scoop?"