John Amaechi still has fond memories of Salt Lake City despite his struggles on the basketball court.
The first former NBA player to acknowledge he was gay said his affection for the community balanced out his scant playing time and clashes with his Utah Jazz coach. In memoirs published in February, he called Salt Lake City "the hippest, gayest place east of San Francisco."
Amaechi returns to celebrate that by serving as the grand marshal for this weekend's Utah Pride Parade. He has also accepted grand marshal honors for parades in Los Angeles and Chicago.
"I really owe Salt Lake. My time there would have been so multiply miserable had it not been for so many people -- gay, straight and otherwise -- who made my time there so special," he said.
Amaechi signed with the Jazz in 2001, feeling betrayed by his former team, the Orlando Magic, who he claims reneged on a promise of a rich contract. His mentality that basketball was his job -- not his life -- didn't fly with Utah coach Jerry Sloan, Amaechi said.
He made several good friends in Salt Lake City and often hosted parties at his downtown loft, which was where he stayed when those friends headed to Salt Lake's gay clubs. Guarded about his sexuality while in the NBA, Amaechi was careful about going out.
He is naturally reserved: Don't expect to see Amaechi dancing on a float tomorrow. He'll leave that to some friends joining him in the parade.
"I'm not as dynamic and sexy," he said. "I'm much better at giving a few words."
Giving a few words is what Amaechi does these days. He works as a motivational speaker, addressing organizations and corporations in Britain and the US, usually on the importance of diversity and communication. He also runs the Amaechi Basketball Centres Foundation in England, which uses the sport to teach life skills to children.
Coming out has resulted in many book signings and invitations to speak, mostly to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered groups.
"Now it seems in America I'm just `that gay guy,'" he said.
That fixation probably needs to change before a professional male athlete will come out while still playing, Amaechi said. He said he hasn't heard from any former teammates currently in the NBA since his admission.
Ademola Lookman on Thursday scored on his Atletico Madrid debut in a 5-0 rout of Real Betis Balompie that sent Diego Simeone’s team to the semi-finals of the Copa del Rey. David Hancko, Giuliano Simeone, Antoine Griezmann and Thiago Almada also scored for Atletico as they advanced to the last four for the third straight season. Atletico are trying to reach their first Copa final since winning the competition in 2012-2013. Hancko opened the scoring for the visitors in the 12th minute and Giuliano Simeone added to the lead in the 30th, before Lookman got his first goal for Atletico on a fast
France head coach Fabien Galthie on Thursday lauded his team’s attacking performance after their dazzling 36-14 victory over Ireland in their Six Nations opener. A brace of tries from Louis Bielley-Biarrey and one from mercurial flyhalf Matthieu Jalibert helped France storm into a 29-0 lead before taking their foot off the gas and allowing Ireland back into the match, before winger Theo Attissogbe put some gloss on the victory late on. “In an attacking sense, with the ball, the team played with great accuracy,” Galthie said. “It was one of the most accurate attacking performances in a long time, despite the weather
SUPERSTAR DELIVERS: Victor Wembanyama scored 29 points and pulled down 11 rebounds to propel the Spurs to a 135-123 victory over the Dallas Mavericks The Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday shook off the early exit of injured star Luka Doncic, rallying without him in the second half for a 119-115 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers. Austin Reaves, again coming off the bench in his second game back from a 19-game injury absence, scored 13 of his 35 points in the fourth quarter, drilling a pair of back-to-back three-pointers to give the Lakers their first lead of the game early in the final frame. “Losing Luka, you know nothing’s going to be easy after that because he does so much for us, but we bonded together,” said
Italy are finally heading to the World Cup — just not in the sport most people might expect. Amid dark times for the country’s storied, but ailing soccer team, some salvation comes in the form of the Azzurri’s unheralded cricketers after their first-ever qualification for a global tournament. Add Italy to cricketing superpowers like India, Australia, England and South Africa competing at the T20 World Cup starting tomorrow. “Just to be there and playing is the end of 45 years of hard work,” Italian Cricket Federation CEO Luca Bruno Malaspina said. That is a reference to the formation of the sport’s national federation in
RSS