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John Amaechi, who briefly became Britain's best-paid sportsman of all time when playing in the United States' NBA, has told how "the music stops" for professional sports stars who admit they are gay.
The 36-year-old, who comes out in his autobiography Man in the Middle which is published
next week, told the sports TV channel ESPN that his announcement ran against the image all sports are obsessed with. "[Sportsmen are] a testosterone-riddled group - [as is] professional sport," he said.
"[Sport is] very ancient Greek in its philosophy; it's the pinnacle of man - that's what people think. [Sportsmen are] men women want to be with and men want to be like - or something like that.
"It knocks the deck and makes the music jump when you have to think 'Oh, maybe the person that I really love and support is gay'. The music stops for a second."
Amaechi has never been afraid of making bold statements. In the US, he received death threats for ridiculing the country's gun culture and George W. Bush's foreign policy. After the outbreak of war in Iraq in 2003, he received threatening e-mails telling him to "stop taking American money" and to "go home".
But his latest declaration - making him the first star from the consciously heterosexual NBA to come out - is the most explosive yet and created more media exposure for him in the US yesterday than he ever found in five largely unspectacular NBA seasons for Cleveland, Orlando and Utah, which saw him command a £3.5m ($10m) contract.
Doc Rivers, Amaechi's former coach at Orlando, said the player's sexuality had been well known and accepted. "It was brought up to me and you look and say, 'So what? Can he rebound? Can he shoot? Can he defend?' " said Rivers.
But debate raged over whether a basketball player might ever come out before retiring. "We know gay players are there," said former NBA player Greg Anthony. "But there is homophobia out there. The question is how will their teammates or organisation respond?"
The cause of gay rights in sport could hardly have a more articulate and thoughtful spokesman than Amaechi, who was born in Boston, Massachusetts, but raised in Stockport, Greater Manchester. After leaving the NBA in 2003, "Meech" (as he is universally known in Manchester) returned to the city and ploughed £2.5m into opening a basketball centre in its deprived Whalley Range district. He had not played basketball before a coach spotted him by chance in Manchester's Market Street when he was 16 and stood 1.98m.
He studied for a doctorate in clinical child psychology at the University of San Diego, worked with the Disarm Trust, a British-based group that aims to tackle and reduce gun culture in inner-cities, and is also an ambassador for the London 2012 Olympic Games. He is confident about his revelation. "I am gay, black, British, smart, dumb, patronising, stubborn, all these other things - flawed in many ways - and I am now asserting my activism," he told the gay website Advocate in an interview to be published in full this month.
"People have these boxes that they want to throw you in. If you're big and black, it's not the first conclusion they jump to."
His book, published by ESPN, also hints at the enjoyment he experienced among Utah's gay community - the "hippest, gayest place east of San Francisco," as he describes it.
"The Mormon majority seems blithely unaware of this flamboyant minority in its midst," he writes. "They see joyfully gay men pouring in and out of bars and clubs."
Amaechi is the first prominent British star to have made such an announcement since footballer Justin Fashanu, who committed suicide in 1990.
A survey of professional footballers in England last year revealed that a majority felt their industry remained homophobic and the only openly gay man on the Football Association council believes that the major hurdle for any player in coming out is concern over how that player's value may be damaged.
Gay tennis player Martina Navratilova said Amaechi's decision would help many young people. "It's hugely important for the kids so they don't feel alone in the world," she said. "We're role models. He will definitely help a lot of kids to feel better about themselves."
But the reaction of Shavlik Randolph, a Philadelphia 76ers player, said everything about the continuing struggle for gay stars.
"As long as you don't bring your gayness on me I'm fine," he said.
"Business-wise, I'm sure I could play with Amaechi. But I think it would create a little awkwardness in the locker-room."
- INDEPENDENT
