Jason Colls, first openly gay athlete to play NBA, mak U.S. sports history

Contents:

• HERE ARE THE 6 GAY MEN WHO HAVE BEEN OUT PUBLICLY WHILE PETG PRO BASKETBALL
• FORMER NBA, KENTUCKY PLAYER ISAAC HUMPHRI OUT AS ONLY ACTIVE GAY PLAYER TOP-TIER MEN'S BASKETBALL
• THE ONLY 3 OUT, GAY NBA PLAYERS IN HISTORY
• 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
• NBA VETERAN JASON COLLS OUT AS GAY
• NBA PLAYER JASON COLLS OUT AS GAY
• NBA’S JASON COLLS OUT AS GAY
• FORMER NBA PLAYER ISAAC HUMPHRI OUT AS GAY TO TEAMMAT AND ADMS HE NSIRED SUICI
• JASON COLLS, FIRST OPENLY GAY ATHLETE TO PLAY NBA, MAK U.S. SPORTS HISTORY
• JASON COLLS SAYS HE'S GAY
• GAY PRO BASKETBALL PLAYER MAR LEHMANN OUT

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. Melbourne Uned basketball player Isaac Humphri is the only active openly gay player a top-tier men's basketball league.

He publicly shared he is gay a vio published Wednday morng Atralian time, and he jos former NBA player Jason Colls -- who announced his sexualy 2013 -- as the only players a top-tier basketball league to announce they are gay the midst of their playg reer. And the ma reason behd me beg so low and beg that pot is bee I was very much stgglg wh my sexualy and g to terms wh the fact that I'm gay. Colls announced he is gay April 2013, shortly after the NBA season end, and he beme the first openly gay player to appear a top-tier basketball league Febary 2014 as a member of the Nets.

FORMER NBA, KENTUCKY PLAYER ISAAC HUMPHRI OUT AS ONLY ACTIVE GAY PLAYER TOP-TIER MEN'S BASKETBALL

Atralian A-League soccer star Josh Cavallo me out as gay an October vio posted to his social media, beg hailed as the first current male top-flight profsnal soccer player to publicly do so. "He ntued: "Growg up I always felt the need to hi myself, you know, bee I was ashamed, and ashamed I'll never be able to do what I love and be gay. In a September terview wh USA Today, 25-year-old mor league baseball player beme the only active baseball profsnal to be out as gay!

Natnal Hockey League prospect Le Prokop me out as gay July, the first active player the league to e out. "I am proud to publicly tell everyone that I am gay, " he wrote a heartfelt msage on social media.

The 28-year-old Natnal Football League player and Rairs fensive leman ma history when he me out as gay on Instagram durg Pri Month, beg the first veteran NFL player to e out as gay while signed to a regular-season ntract. The Bachelor star and former football player (who was signed by the San Diego Chargers as an undrafted ee agent and was on the practice squad of the Oakland Rairs and the Philalphia Eagl) me out as gay April, sayg he had fally e to terms wh his sexualy and the "next step all of this was sort of lettg people know. "He wanted everyone to know he was "still the same Colton everybody met on TV" and is "proud to be gay.

THE ONLY 3 OUT, GAY NBA PLAYERS IN HISTORY

Hiltz had prevly e out as gay while llege and has been a visible and affirmg prence for gay athlet the past. Corey Walsh, the 27-year-old pro BMX rir and Vans spokperson, said he isn't normally the type of person to "let people " on his personal life, but felt was important to e out as gay a March Instagram post bee "there are a lot of people still stgglg wh the same suatns" and he "jt wanted to let people know that they are not alone. Champn long track speedskater Conor McDermott-Mostowy never hid beg gay om his fay, iends, and fellow athlet, but he also wasn't one to rate his locker wh rabow Pri flags eher.

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

He ially feared negative stereotyp about gay male athlet but threw those ncerns asi after his two-tle performance at the U. Jason CollsCareerComg OutJon AmaechiCareer Comg Out Isaac HumphriCareerComg OutAre There Closeted Gay NBA Players? One ESPN mentator, Chris Brosard, exprsed both his admiratn for Colls’ bravery and his belief that Colls uld not be both gay and christian.

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

Tennis great Marta Navratilova, who had somewhat unbelievably e out 1981, praised Colls and exprsed her hope that this would help end homophobia team sports and lead to more players g out.

Colls beme the first, and still only, active gay NBA player when he signed wh the Broolyn Nets Febary of 2014. John Amaechi was the first gay NBA player to e out, but he did so after he had retired om the league. The difference reactn between Ameachi’s and Colls’ statements is a sign of the growth acceptance of gay people between 2007 and 2013.

NBA VETERAN JASON COLLS OUT AS GAY

Barkley said he was sure he had played both wh and agast gay players and should not be viewed as a big al. Lebron Jam said “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”. The strongt reactn me om Tim Hardaway who said: “Well, you know, I hate gay people, so I let be known.

He actually went to unselg and beme the 1st person to sign his name to a 2013 petn to legalize gay marriage Florida. Humprhi is the only male player a top tier league the world who is currently playg and openly gay. While the percentage of people who are gay vari wh different measur, there is no reputable measure sayg the number is zero.

NBA PLAYER JASON COLLS OUT AS GAY

Jason Colls me out 2013 and went on to play the next season beg the first and only openly gay active player NBA history. 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. 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.

NBA’S JASON COLLS OUT AS GAY

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. 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.

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.

“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.

FORMER NBA PLAYER ISAAC HUMPHRI OUT AS GAY TO TEAMMAT AND ADMS HE NSIRED SUICI

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. 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. “Unbeknownst to me at the time, ” Amaechi wrote, “Sloan had ed some anti-gay nuendo to scribe me.

JASON COLLS, FIRST OPENLY GAY ATHLETE TO PLAY NBA, MAK U.S. SPORTS HISTORY

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. 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.

JASON COLLS SAYS HE'S GAY

“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.

Beg a big NBA fan, Chris cid to check the acunts of some of his favore players and found var homophobic tweets. 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. 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.

GAY PRO BASKETBALL PLAYER MAR LEHMANN OUT

“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.

Readg [the tweets] remd me a lot of my journal that I kept, and I stopped after two weeks, bee was jt … you hear , but you don’t really realize how much sual homophobia there was. Speakg om my experience, there is a disnnect sometim between someone who sual homophobia, and then once you show them who you are, they will step up and have your back. Oshae Brissett of the Indiana Pacers, now 23, was 12 and 13 when he posted ne homophobic tweets a two-year span.

One mon slur ed var tweets was “no homo, ” which me to vogue over 10 years ago as a way for a man to pliment another man whout beg taken “the wrong way. “‘No homo’ as a phrase promot a negative nnotatn regards to gay men, as if we are ls-than, ” Chris said. As a ach and tor, Nimo said he still hears “no homo” around teenagers — even beg out as a gay man — though the culture basketball has improved.