Four years after playing in his final NBA game, JohnAmaechi became the first player from the league to reveal he was gay. He spoke to PeterMendel7 about what's keeping NBA players in the closet and the signs of progress he sees in the league. Pride
John Amaechi’s life changed forever the first time he stepped on a basketball court.
“Instead of tackling me to abuse me, to fight me, it was a bunch of kids running toward me and yelling loudly at the top of their voices, ‘He’s on our team,’” Amaechi told me in a phone conversation at the end of March. “It was such a heartwarming experience. I was like, ‘I am never leaving this environment.’”
He moved to the U.S. when he was 18 and eventually earned an athletic scholarship to Penn State. After three standout seasons with the Nittany Lions, he got passed over in the 1995 NBA Draft but signed a contract with theThen, on Nov. 3, 1995, he started his first-ever NBA game, becoming the first undrafted free agent to do so. But the 49-year-old doesn’t think that’s what most NBA fans associate his name with.
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