Ex-NBA player John Amaechi spoke to TMZ Sports this past week regardg Bob Huggs’ ments. Amaechi me out as gay 2007.
Contents:
- FORMER JAZZ PLAYER SAYS HE IS GAY
- FORMER NBA PLAYER SAYS HE'S GAY
- GAY EX-NBA PLAYER JOHN AMAECHI RIPS BOB HUGGS: ‘HE SOUNDS LIKE A DOSR’
- FORMER NBA PLAYER JOHN AMAECHI ON OUTSI THE L: I’M GAY
- THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985
- BOOK TELLS OF LIFE THE NBA FOR A GAY PLAYER
- 'I'M NOT JT THAT BIG GAY BLOKE'
FORMER JAZZ PLAYER SAYS HE IS GAY
Utah Jazz ach Jerry Sloan said Wednday that he did not know John Amaechi was gay when Amaechi played for the Jazz, but would have ma some difference to him if he had. * john amaechi gay *
Today, we’re rewdg to 2007 and the story of the former pro athlete who beme the first NBA player to e out as gay: John Amaechi. John Amaechi, a former player wh the Utah Jazz and Orlando Magic, has bee the first NBA player to e out as gay.
FORMER NBA PLAYER SAYS HE'S GAY
John Amaechi, Who Played 5 Seasons, Is First NBA Player To Announce He Is Gay * john amaechi gay *
“I am simply dog what a good person of nscience would do, which is makg people aware that gay people don’t jt look like Jack om ‘Will and Grace, ’ and that they don’t want to jump your bon every ocsn and that some are mp and some are butch and that we’re different and we’re eful and we are here. His guaranteed ntract wh the Jazz set his md at ease, and was there that he began venturg out to gay tablishments and buildg a mostly gay circle of iends (the first wi circle of iends of his life, acrdg to the book).
“Those gmpy social nservativ who ntue to sist that gay life is lonely and unhappy have obvly never met my iends, ” Amaechi wrote.
He also acknowledg that those gay clubs like New York’s Splash and Los Angel’ Abbey who have claimed the past to have spotted him there while he was wh the Jazz may, fact, have done so. In a 2002 terview wh the Stsman newspaper, Amaechi had this to say about the subject of gays the NBA: “If you look at our league, mori aren’t very well reprented. There’s hardly any Hispanic players, no Asian-Amerins, so that there’s no openly gay players is no real surprise.
GAY EX-NBA PLAYER JOHN AMAECHI RIPS BOB HUGGS: ‘HE SOUNDS LIKE A DOSR’
* john amaechi gay *
The book also offers sight to the closed world of profsnal sports, cludg Amaechi’s spired and iendly polil arguments wh Karl Malone, what he lled the betrayal of Orlando Magic management, kd words om former Indiana ach Bobby Knight, his regret that he never told Greg Ostertag, “the gentle big man” whom he rpected, that he was gay when Ostertag asked him while they played together Utah, his rpect for then-Rockets ach Jeff Van Gundy, and his lack of rpect for Jazz ach Jerry Sloan. While the book giv a glimpse to the life of the first openly gay former NBA player, more importantly pats a picture of a man whose ditn to philanthropy once led him to turn down a $17 ln ntract wh the Los Angel Lakers. ”After his retirement, Amaechi h the headl aga for beg the first NBA player to publicly tell the world he was gay, his 2007 memoir Man the Middle – a New York Tim btseller.
The retired NBA player Tim Hardaway famoly clared that he hated gay people and would ask his team to tra any player who me out.
) Today there are plenty of gay athlet who have e out, he says, but not publicly – and he entirely unrstands their cisn.
FORMER NBA PLAYER JOHN AMAECHI ON OUTSI THE L: I’M GAY
Wdy Cy Tim News - John Amaechi Paris. Image urty of Fifteen Mut PR. John Amaechi was the first Natnal Basketball Associatn (NBA) player to reveal he is gay—but he is not the only one out there, he claims. 'Are * john amaechi gay *
When you go public “you stop beg the person who sred this many goals, ran this fast – you’re jt the gay guy and that’s disappotg” nvced Amaechi was attendg Pri Manchter.
Photograph: Anselm Ebulue/Courty John AmaechiThe racism he has experienced gay spac means he do not “really feel like a gay person at all terms of belongg to a muny”. Beg refed entry to a gay bar Manchter 2010 bee the bouncer thought he was “big, black and uld be trouble” is jt one example he has faced.
Utah Jazz ach Jerry Sloan said Wednday that he did not know John Amaechi was gay when Amaechi played for the Jazz, but would have ma some difference to him if he had. I don't know exactly; I always have peopl' feelgs at heart, " Sloan said before Jazz practice Wednday morng when asked about his part a book that is to e out next week which Amaechi proclaims his homosexualy — the first NBA player to ever do so — and acc Sloan of g "anti-gay nuendo" to scribe him.
THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985
The "$17 ln man" remas vigilant years after beg the first out gay former NBA player. * john amaechi gay *
Amaechi is to make a public announcement of his homosexualy on ESPN's "Outsi the L" Sunday, and the book, published by ESPN's books divisn, "Man the Middle, " is to be released shortly thereafter.
Miller is a "bigot, " former Jazz player Karl Malone is a "xenophobe" and that Sloan "hated" created an ternatnal stir last year when he orred his theaters to not show the acclaimed gay-wboy movie "Brokeback Mounta. "He said he likely wouldn't read the about the book began surfacg at a Super Bowl party, hted at by Amaechi publicist Howard Bragman, who managed such announcements for other gay athlet.
BOOK TELLS OF LIFE THE NBA FOR A GAY PLAYER
Former NBA player John Amaechi talks about his tobgraphy which he reveals that he is gay. His new book is tled Man the Middle. * john amaechi gay *
"He is g out of the closet as a gay man, " Bragman told The Associated Prs refed ment on whether he ever ma homophobic statements but said his relatnship wh Amaechi was "shaky, as a player. "It also showed that my own paranoia and overwhelmg sire for privacy, I'd failed to give some of my teammat the benef of the doubt, " Sheridan quoted Amaechi as article Tuday , which obtaed a py of the book, mentned other thgs about Amaechi's time Utah, cludg this about Sloan: "Unbeknownst to me at the time, " Amaechi said the book, "Sloan had ed some anti-gay nuendo to scribe me. Lled Malone unfortable wh also told of Amaechi's "regret that he never told Greg Ostertag, 'the gentle big man' whom he rpected, that he was gay when Ostertag asked him.
" A guaranteed Jazz ntract, said, "set his md at ease, and was there that he began venturg out to gay tablishments and buildg a mostly gay circle of iends.
'I'M NOT JT THAT BIG GAY BLOKE'
John Amaechi, who now works as a psychologist, beme the first NBA player to publicly tell the world he was gay when he released his memoir "Man the Middle" 2007. * john amaechi gay *
Marta Navratilova, perhaps the most famo openly gay athlete the world, praised Amaechi's cisn and said 's imperative for athlet to e out bee of what she lled an epimic of suicis among young lbians and gays. "The fact that John has done this, maybe will give others the fort or nfince to e out as well, whether they are playg or retirg, " Hill Jam, however, said he didn't thk an openly gay person uld survive the league. "Wh teammat you have to be tstworthy, and if you're gay and you're not admtg that you are, then you are not tstworthy, " Jam said.
"But, the way Miami center Shaquille O'Neal se , the locker room mentaly uld also work for a gay player by rallyg his teammat to his fense. "In his book, Amaechi scrib the challenge of beg gay a league where 's assumed all players are heterosexual. Sloan said on Wednday that although his relatnship wh Amaechi was "shaky" bee of the player's attu, he didn't know Amaechi was gay.