Are any nba players gay




Six gay pro basketball players who have been out while playing. When John Amaechi came out publicly in , he was ahead of his time, sharing that he is gay and a former pro basketball. Discover the inspiring personal stories of the gay player in nba who have fearlessly come out, defying stereotypes and sparking a transformative shift in the world of professional basketball.

For years, the NBA and other major leagues were slow to embrace openly gay players, but things are changing. Today, more athletes are stepping up, living their truth, and making basketball a. To date, there have been at least six gay men who have come out publicly while still competing in professional basketball. These players include: Jason Collins, who played for the Brooklyn Nets, Washington Wizards, Boston Celtics, Atlanta Hawks, and Minnesota Timberwolves.

Read on for a list of 6 professional basketball players—both NBA and college—who have come out as gay. John Amaechi is the first former NBA player to publicly come out as gay, in in his memoir, Man in the Middle. See our ethics statement. The US has been increasingly accepting of LGBT folks, although the trajectory has been rockier for transgender individuals.

Further, these leagues share a common denominator of maintaining ideals of masculinity that are often viewed as orthogonal to being LGBT.

gay nba players 2025

LGBT men are stereotypically considered weak, in contrast to the strength required to play sports. Moreover, stereotypes of LGBT men as effeminate clash with broader albeit weakening societal perceptions of sports as a masculine domain. Again, this is not unique to the NBA, but cannot simply be condoned. By my count, there are two former players who were out during their time in the league: Jason Collins and John Amaechi.

See if you come to a different conclusion from this confusing list of LGBT players and allies.

are any nba players gay

Not a lot, sure, but more than other sports! A decent number of teams host Pride Nights, a lot of people affiliated with the league players, coaches, staff, executives, and so on have offered myriad statements and forms of support, and the league itself has put its money where its mouth is. The NFL Yet, it has also had its share of mishaps. Although the prevalence of Pride Night involves a variety of factors besides acceptance including the sheer number of regular season games and whether they play during Pride Month , almost every team in the MLB and the MLS seems to have a Pride Night.

And, perhaps most notably, there is the damning list of current out players that began this article. One of those factors is Pride Night, which I turn to next. Fans could buy a special ticket package for the game that included a ticket and some pretty dope rainbow socks with a Bucks logo. Drag queens highlighted the halftime show and local LGBT-owned eateries manned kiosks in the stadium.

In other words, there was a lot of good, intentional work spotlighting and uplifting the local LGBT community. There were also a lot of rainbows. Like, a lot of rainbows. When some announcers said LGBT, it sounded as if they were saying it for the first time, with hesitation over which letter should come next. At the end of the day, though, the festivities still felt discordant for a sport with no currently out players.

Probably not. But a little representation would go a long way towards legitimizing the event. It is mathematically possible that there are no LGBT players in the league. That leaves a whopping nine billionths of a percent chance that every player in the NBA is straight:. In sum, there are probably at least a handful of current LGBT players. It is likely that these players perceive that they would not feel supported if they came out.

They would also feel the pressure of being the only out player in the league - a pressure that only exists because there are no other currently out players. The problem is that the systems they are in do not make them feel comfortable doing so. Fair enough. But we receive a healthy dosage of off-the-court content anyway, especially via social media.

Giannis routinely posts pictures and videos of his girlfriend.