Gay matter

"Truth has no special time of its own. Its hour is now – always." – Albert Schweitzer, French physician and clergyman

John Amaechi dropped a bomb on the NBA. Sort of.

Amaechi, the 6’10", 270-pound former Penn State center and five-year NBA veteran, announced February 7 that he is gay. He will appear on the ESPN program "Outside the Lines" to discuss the secret life he reveals in his book "Man in the Middle", which will be released in the US on February 20.

The British center played for the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 1995-1996 season, then spent some time in Europe before returning to the league via the Orlando Magic from 1999 to 2001. He was later traded to the Utah Jazz. Ironically, it was in Salt Lake City, one of the more conservative communities in the NBA, where he started to come out, frequenting gay clubs and becoming more expressive.

Amaechi, who averaged 6.2 points and 2.6 rebounds a game before retiring from the NBA in January of 2004, also has some minor achievements of note to his credit. He was one of only seven undrafted NBA players to start a game in the 1999-2000 season, was voted to the NBA All-Interview team that year, and was tied for sixth in the voting for Most Improved Player that same campaign. On January 2, 2000, he became the first player to score a basket in Miami’s American Airlines Arena, the league’s first basket of the new millennium.

Today, Amaechi is a television personality in Britain, and personally funds the Amaechi Basketball Center in Manchester, where he lives a relatively quiet life.

Until now.

There were many swift reactions, most of a predictable nature. NBA commissioner David Stern said "We have a very diverse league. The question at the NBA is always ‘Have you got game?’ That’s it, end of inquiry."

Other players made it an issue of trust, like Cavs All-Star LeBron James, who said "With teammates, you have to be trustworthy, and if you’re gay and you’re not admitting that you are, then you are not trustworthy."

The general consensus among players is that the issue of homosexuality is a close second to talent on the basketball court. But for players like Amaechi (who insists there are other gay players still in NBA uniforms), the two matters are intertwined, making it emotionally wrenching to keep the secret, and potentially tragic to reveal it.

"It’s a frightening prospect. It’s terrifying," Amaechi was quoted as saying. "There are people for whom the entire world is based around this idea that people will look at them and when they look at them, they are NBA superstars. And any change to that would be physiologically devastating. Emotionally devastating, financially devastating."

Amaechi is the first NBA player to openly admit he is gay, and although it is timed to coincide with the release of his book, he is not the biggest athlete to do so. Tennis great Martina Navratilova came out in the 1970’s, former NFL running back Dave Kopay did the same in 1977, Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Glenn Burke also came out, and multiple Olympic gold medalist diver Greg Louganis also admitted he is gay.

The can of worms this opened is that it brings to light bigotry and homophobia we do not want to talk about. Many of us have grown up making snide remarks against homosexuals and even women as a matter of course, as if we were yawning or sneezing. And it makes us uncomfortable that something done privately, as in the confines of an all-male locker room, gets out into the public and is judged.

What bothers me about what Amaechi and most of these athletes have done is that it is rare that admissions of this nature are made in the prime of one’s career. Statistically, there was a possibility that Magic Johnson may have contracted the HIV virus the same way, but the question was quickly squelched.

Another question that raises a lot of discomfort is: how would we have dealt with it? What would you do if you had a teammate who is gay? What if your brother or son had a teammate on his college or high school team who was a homosexual?

It drastically changes the dynamics of such an intimate environment. Obviously, the other players wouldn’t be as comfortable undressing or showering, no matter how talented a gay teammate might be. Look at it this way: what if you put a man in the girls’ locker room? No matter how much he insisted you weren’t his type, you’d still think twice about being at home with that person around.

What will happen next? A witch hunt to weed out the possible other gay players might ensue, but then again, it is a lifestyle choice that is hard to prove.

Perhaps what we are looking for is an even greater display of courage, the willingness to challenge the system, and stand up for your beliefs, no matter how unacceptable you think they may be.

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