John Amaechi, the former NBA player and England basketball
international, is to publish a book next week in which he will
reveal he is gay.
The autobiography, entitled Man in the Middle, will detail his
six seasons in the world's leading basketball league and its
release is being eagerly awaited in the United States.
ESPN, publishers of the book have lined up a television
documentary featuring the 6ft 10in former centre and a revelatory
magazine article prior to the release of the book in the United
States on February 20.
Amaechi, 36, becomes the first male basketball player to come
out as gay and only a handful of high-profile men in other team
sports have done so.
Small-time American baseball player Billy Bean created a stir
when he published a biography in which he revealed his
homosexuality and Esera Tuaolo, an American football player for
nine years in the NFL, did likewise in a magazine article in
2002.
Well-known women's basketball star Sheryl Swoopes did the same
last year but, with the NBA known for its machismo and womanising
players, no male star has made such a revelation.
In Great Britain, Amaechi will be the most high-profile former
athlete to have taken such a step since the late footballer Justin
Fashanu did so in the late 1980s.
Amaechi signed for the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA after
graduation in 1995.
After just 28 games, he moved to Europe and played for French
clubs Cholet and Limoges, Bologna in Italy, Greece's Panathinaikos
and the Sheffield Sharks in the British Basketball League, five
teams in the next three years.
He returned to the NBA with the Orlando Magic in 1999-2000 and
enjoyed his best season, earning him a 10 million dollar (five
million pounds), four-year contract.
But after one more season in Orlando, Amaechi was traded to the
Utah Jazz for two more seasons prior to a spectacular fall from
grace which saw him not used at all at the start of the 2003-04
season.
There followed trades to the Houston Rockets and New York Knicks
but neither club ever played Amaechi and the latter eventually paid
up his contract and released him.
He averaged 6.2 points and 2.6 rebounds a game over his NBA
career.
(China Daily via AFP February 9, 2007)