John Amaechi

From Hoopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

John Ekwugha Amaechi (born November 26, 1970 in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.) is a retired English NBA basketball player who currently works as a broadcaster in the United Kingdom. In February 2007, Amaechi publicly announced that he is gay and became the first player associated with the NBA to come out.

Contents

[edit]

Early Life

The son of a Nigerian father, he was raised in Stockport, England by his English mother. Amaechi moved to the U.S. to play high school basketball at St. John's High School in Toledo, Ohio. He began playing college basketball at Vanderbilt but transferred to Penn State where he was a two-time First Team Academic All-American selection.

Enlarge
[edit]

Playing Career

The 6' 10", 270 lbs center was signed undrafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers in 1995. He played 28 games for the Cavaliers during the 1995-1996 season, then played for three years in Europe (France: Cholet, Limoges CSP; Italy: Kinder Bologna; Greece: Panathinaikos; England: Sheffield Sharks) before signing with the Orlando Magic in 1999. With a solid 1999-2000 season, where he averaged 10.5 points in 21.1 minutes per contest, he gained fame for scoring the NBA's first points of the new millennium in 2000. Before speaking publicly about being gay, Amaechi may have been best known for turning down a $17 million contract offer from the Los Angeles Lakers in 2000 to return to play for Orlando for $600,000 per year instead. Amaechi went on to play for the Utah Jazz from 2001 to 2003.

He was traded to the Houston Rockets midway through his final NBA season in exchange for Glen Rice, and though he was an active player, he did not participate in any games for them.

Amaechi came out of retirement to represent England during the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, helping the England national basketball team win the bronze medal.

[edit]

Post-NBA Career

Amaechi can be seen covering a weekly NBA basketball game aired in the UK on the television channel "Five".

In addition, Amaechi owns Animus Consulting, which provides motivational speakers, and is a partner in Animus Development, an executive training program.

Amaechi is also involved with the ABC Foundation in Manchester, which encourages children to become involved in sports and their communities by building youth sports centers throughout the United Kingdom. The first such facility was built in Manchester, not far from Amaechi's childhood home of Stockport.

In a radio interview, Amaechi said that he is returning to school to get a Ph.D. in psychology. "I want to do something more meaningful in my life," he said. Amaechi also explained why he played for Orlando in 2000 for much less than the $17 million offered to him by the Lakers; his answer was that Orlando had hired him in 1999 when no other team would. "There are many people who are asked what their word is worth, and when people ask me that I can say, 'At least $17 million.'"

[edit]

Coming Out

In February 2007, Amaechi spoke about his homosexuality on ESPN's Outside the Lines program. He also released a book, Man in the Middle, published by ESPN Books (ISBN 1933060190), which discusses his career and life as a closeted professional athlete. Amaechi is the first NBA player to speak publicly about being gay.

Very few male team sports members have come out. Among them are former NFL players Esera Tuaolo, Roy Simmons, and Dave Kopay, former NRL player Ian Roberts and former Major League Baseball players Glenn Burke and Billy Bean. Bean wrote an op-ed in support of Amaechi's decision.

Cyd Zeigler, the co-founder of Outsports.com, a web site dedicated to the gay influence in sports, said, "I don't think (Amaechi's declaration) will have any effect on his ability to do that," referring to Amaechi's businesses and charitable work. "You will have some people who will raise an eyebrow," Zeigler added.

Zeigler said he has read an advance copy of Amaechi's book and spoken with him on the telephone. He gave some insight to Amaechi's upbringing in England, where he was raised by his mother and felt isolated because of his size and mixed race.

Zeigler wrote that in a 2002 interview, Amaechi had spoken about gays in the NBA: "If you look at our league, minorities aren't very well represented. There's hardly any Hispanic players, no Asian-Americans, so that there's no openly gay players is no real surprise. It would be like an alien dropping down from space. There'd be fear, then panic: they just wouldn't know how to handle it."

Months after coming out, Amaechi stated he had 'underestimated America', saying that the 'wrath of a nation' he expected never came about. Amaechi made these statements even as posters on blogs such as Free Republic wished openly for his death.

[edit]

Reaction From Other Players

One widely-publicized response to Amaechi's announcement came from former NBA player Tim Hardaway, who stated that he would ask for a gay player to be removed from his team; "First of all I wouldn’t want him on my team. Second of all, if he was on my team I would really distance myself from him because I don’t think that’s right and I don’t think he should be in the locker room when we’re in the locker room. Something has to give, If you have 12 other ballplayers in your locker room that's upset and can't concentrate and always worried about him in the locker room or on the court or whatever, it's going to be hard for your teammates to win and accept him as a teammate."

Some players were supportive. Grant Hill was supportive, saying "the fact that John has done this, maybe it will give others the comfort or confidence to come out as well, whether they are playing or retiring." Steven Hunter said that he would accept an openly gay teammate "as long as he [didn't] make any advances toward me. As long as he came to play basketball like a man and conducted himself like a good person, I'd be fine with it." That sentiment was echoed by Shavlik Randolph, who said that "as long as you don't bring your gayness on me I'm fine. As far as business-wise, I'm sure I could play with him. But I think it would create a little awkwardness in the locker room."

Other players expressed mixed feelings. Pat Garrity warned that an openly gay player could expect to face both acceptance and hostility from his teammates. He said that "they would have teammates that would accept them for being a good person and a good teammate, and there would be people who would give him a hard time about it. I think that's true if you're playing basketball or in an office job. That's just how the world is right now." LeBron James felt that he couldn't trust a gay teammate who was in the closet, saying "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. So that's like the No. 1 thing as teammates — we all trust each other.... It's a trust factor, honestly. A big trust factor."

[edit]

External Links

Retrieved from "http://hoopedia.nba.com/index.php/John_Amaechi"
Personal tools