The Only 3 Out, Gay NBA Players In History - Sports Nostalgia HQ

Contents:

• HERE ARE THE 6 GAY MEN WHO HAVE BEEN OUT PUBLICLY WHILE PETG PRO BASKETBALL
• 30 MOMENTS OF PRI: OPENLY GAY NBA EXECUTIVE RICK WELTS WS THIRD CHAMPNSHIP WH WARRRS
• OUR 30TH MOMENT OF PRI: JASON COLLS SR FOR THE FIRST TIME AS AN OUT GAY ATHLETE
• JASON COLLS ME OUT 10 YEARS AGO, HERG A PERD OF CREASG GAY VISIBILY MEN’S SPORTS
• A GAY NBA FAN FOUND 78 HOMOPHOBIC TWEETS BY 40 PLAYERS ON 23 TEAMS
• THE ONLY 3 OUT, GAY NBA PLAYERS IN HISTORY
• NBA, NETS, ACH AND PLAYERS HAVE ALL BOTCHED THE RPONSE TO KEV DURANT’S ANTI-GAY MENTS

HERE ARE THE 6 GAY MEN WHO HAVE BEEN OUT PUBLICLY WHILE PETG PRO BASKETBALL

When John Amaechi me out publicly 2007, he was ahead of his time, sharg that he’s gay and a former profsnal basketball player. Sce Colls showed the world you uld be a gay man profsnal basketball, there has been a trickle of gay athlet to follow, most recently former NBA player and current Atralian pro basketball player Isaac Humphri. Here are the gay men who have blazed a trail on basketball urts around the world.

30 MOMENTS OF PRI: OPENLY GAY NBA EXECUTIVE RICK WELTS WS THIRD CHAMPNSHIP WH WARRRS

Today: Openly gay Goln State Warrrs print Rick Welts ws third NBA tle on June 8, 2018.

The prev week, Welts had been ducted to the Basketball Hall of Fame, beg the first openly gay man to receive the honor. Today, for the last of our 30 Moments of Pri, we revis Febary 27, 2014: the first NBA game which Jason Colls sred pots as an openly gay pro basketball player. It was his first game sce g out as gay.

He beme the first active male athlete one of the big pro sports leagu to e out publicly as gay.

OUR 30TH MOMENT OF PRI: JASON COLLS SR FOR THE FIRST TIME AS AN OUT GAY ATHLETE

And I’m gay, ” Colls wrote “I didn’t set out to be the first openly gay athlete playg a major Amerin team sport. He later wrote The Players’ Tribune about the irony that some people believe out gay players provi a “distractn” to straight athlet.

“I had never felt more fortable playg basketball than I was as an openly gay man. The energy volved hidg the strs, shame, and fear of beg gay is a full-time job. Sce Jim Buzski and I started Outsports 1999, we’d talked about an active gay player the Big Four — MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL — g out publicly.

A young, gay Black athlete om the Midwt was an important summ attene that year. They each happened to be gay. Yet was that private moment wh that young gay Black athlete that my rpect multiplied.

JASON COLLS ME OUT 10 YEARS AGO, HERG A PERD OF CREASG GAY VISIBILY MEN’S SPORTS

Colls has seen the effects of beg out the sport firsthand, talkg repeatedly about one of his former teammat who ed anti-gay slurs the locker room eventually beg a supporter.

When athlet e out the locker room, the “sual homophobia” of locker-room talk often subsis.

Few gay pro athlet have e out men’s sports the last 7 years. In 10 years, Colls remas the only active NBA player to e out publicly (Bill Kennedy is an active gay NBA referee who is out; player John Amaechi me out after retirg). When Rogers me out MLS, Michael Sam me out the NFL and Colls me out, I was nvced this was the begng of a seri of gay and bi athlet who would e out publicly men’s pro sports.

A GAY NBA FAN FOUND 78 HOMOPHOBIC TWEETS BY 40 PLAYERS ON 23 TEAMS

Sce those three gay pro athlet me out the urse of a year, only two active athlet big-time Amerin men’s pro sports have e out publicly while on a team: Coll Mart MLS and Carl Nassib the NFL. The ments are among 78 tweets om 36 current and active NBA players on teams that are homophobic language, nature or even tent (four other players were on a roster when the list was piled last month, but they are no longer on an NBA team).

The players clu CJ McCollum, the print of the Natnal Basketball Players Assn., who tweeted “no homo, ” as well as superstar Kev Durant, who tweeted “shut up fag boy. “I don’t re how long ago was, shows the person’s character, my opn, ” said Derrick Gordon, who me out publicly as gay while playg basketball at UMass and who now plays profsnally Germany. When “Chris, ” a young NBA fan who is gay, saw the tweets, they sadned and angered him.

“It was shockg but not surprisg, ” Chris said of the number of homophobic tweets he found. “The culture of homophobia sports ns very ep, pecially a hyper-mascule league like the NBA. Beg a big NBA fan, Chris cid to check the acunts of some of his favore players and found var homophobic tweets.

THE ONLY 3 OUT, GAY NBA PLAYERS IN HISTORY

From his rearch: “Fag” showed up 29 tweets, “gay” 40 (and not plimentary), and the phrase “no homo” 17. The Denver Nuggets and Utah Jazz each have four players on the list of NBA athlet who created anti-gay tweets, while the Chigo Bulls currently have three players who tweeted homophobic msag.

Of the 78 homophobic tweets, 70 were sent om 2009 to 2013. Not cintally, Jason Colls beme the first active NBA player to e out as gay 2013, raisg signifint awarens of LGBTQ issu — and the prence of gay players — the NBA.

For example, Durant 2013 voiced his support of Colls, but he also ma graphilly homophobic ments 2021. The NBA also might be takg a stricter le on homophobic ments by players. So ’s possible that players wh anti-gay views simply don’t exprs them publicly today.

NBA, NETS, ACH AND PLAYERS HAVE ALL BOTCHED THE RPONSE TO KEV DURANT’S ANTI-GAY MENTS

“Culture as a whole has changed, ” said Anthony Nimo, a succsful high school basketball ach New York who me out publicly as gay several years ago.

Colls — who played as an openly gay player the last uple regular-season months and then playoffs of the 2013-14 season — has been speakg to NBA rooki at the league’s annual symposium sce 2015.