Former NBA player Amaechi to reveal he is gay

[shawmut]

February 7, 2007

BRISTOL, CONNECTICUT (TICKER) -- Former NBA player John Amaechi will declare he is gay in his book to be released later this month.

Amaechi would be the first NBA player to publicly declare his homosexuality and join a very short list of males in professional team sports who have come out.

The book is entitled "Man in the Middle" and is published by ESPN Books. Amaechi's declaration in the book was reported Wednesday on ESPN.com, and he will appear on ESPN's "Outside the Lines" on Sunday at 9:30 a.m. EST.

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Amaechi, 36, was born in Massachusetts and raised in England. The 6-10 forward-center played collegiately at Penn State before entering the NBA in 1995.

In five seasons with Cleveland, Orlando and Utah, Amaechi averaged 6.2 points and 2.6 rebounds before retiring in 2003. While with the Jazz, he accused the coaching staff of making anti-gay remarks about him.


http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=amaechi&prov=st&type=lgns

[dsc]

1. Good for him

It seems he was a pretty good guy from the article. Passing up a large payday to stay in his community to help was a great thing.

[Broken_Hero]

2. Exactly,

I've been watching this off/on all day long via ESPN.

[closeupready]

3. He is HOT!

http://www.meech.org/video.htm (I should send him an e-mail - hey, I'm available - :D )

But seriously, imagine how many closeted players will realize that 1) you can be gay and a successful athlete; and 2) you are not the only one. I admire and applaud him, because I don't think if I was him, that even I could do this. :)

[booley]

4. That is good but...

I won't consider it couragouse until an athlete comes out DURING his career.

So far it seems all the gay athletes came out after they retired.