Hooped Up

John Ameachi who caused a stir last year when he came out as the first former gay NBA player will be Amnesty International’s first sporting ambassador at the Beijing Olympics this summer.

The 37-year-old, who is the only basketball player in the history of the NBA to come out of the closet, is attending the Games as a BBC commentator.

The exact scope of his additional role for Amnesty is unclear, but Amaechi has already urged athletes to speak out about China’s record on human rights.

“To gag athletes is outrageous,” the British basketball star told The Guardian.

“Since when are equality of opportunity, basic human rights, since when have these things been political?

Pink News

John Amaechi has gone from forgotten NBA player to a household name due to the disclosure of his orientation and now he is set to receive an endorsement from a company that sells men’s grooming products.

Amaechi “is the perfect storm,” said Todd Greene, chief executive at the HeadBlade Company in Culver City, Calif., which specializes in products for bald men, because “he’s African-American, a basketball player and gay, and those are all huge demographics for us.”

“And he uses the product,” Mr. Greene said, adding that he learned Mr. Amaechi was a “HeadBlader,” as Mr. Greene calls his customers, while deciding whether Mr. Amaechi would make an effective spokesman.

“You want to do due diligence on who endorses your stuff,” is how Mr. Greene described the research process. Other HeadBlade endorsers include the singer Chris Daughtry, who appeared on “American Idol”; Toney Freeman, a professional bodybuilder; and Howie Mandel, of NBC’s “Deal or No Deal.”

New York Times

Stop No. 1 on John Amaechi’s book tour is none other than San Francisco. The ex-NBA center is scheduled to kick off his monthlong PR blitz at Borders in Union Square at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

It should be an interesting night. Amaechi’s book, “Man in the Middle,” details what life was like as a closeted gay man in the league, and the subject matter was given new legs last week when former Warriors guard Tim Hardaway went on a lengthy homophobic rant during a radio interview.

Hardaway subsequently was booted from his NBA ambassadorship duties here by Commissioner David Stern, who labeled Hardaway’s words as “hateful speech” and said to stay tuned to the story.

“Maybe the NBA has another opportunity, as we did 15 years ago when Magic Johnson scored that last three-point shot at the Orlando (All-Star) Game, where we could tell the world that you couldn’t get HIV from perspiration, even though a lot of people still believed that,” Stern said this weekend.

“We didn’t ask for it and we didn’t ask for this. But here we are. Welcome to the NBA.”

SF Gate

Former NBA centre John Amaechi, who disclosed his homosexuality last week, said anti-gay comments by another retired player “demonstrate the need to continue the conversation.”

Retired Miami Heat guard Tim Hardaway said on a radio show Wednesday that he hates gay people, then later apologized for his remarks.

“I don’t need Tim’s comments to realize there’s a problem,” Amaechi said in a phone interview yesterday. “People said that I should just shut up and go away – now they have to rethink that.”

Hardaway’s comments were sparked by Amaechi’s decision to come out of the closet.

“You know, I hate gay people, so I let it be known. I don’t like gay people and I don’t like to be around gay people,” Hardaway said. “I’m homophobic. I don’t like it. It shouldn’t be in the world or in the United States.”

Hardaway also said if he did find out that a teammate was gay, he would ask for the player to be removed from the team.

“His words pollute the atmosphere,” Amaechi said. “It creates an atmosphere that allows young gays and lesbians to be harassed in school, creates an atmosphere where in 33 states you can lose your job and where anti-gay and lesbian issues are used for political gain,” Amaechi said.

Toronto Star

Retired Miami Heat guard Tim Hardaway said Wednesday that he hates gay people, but later said he regretted the remarks.

“You know, I hate gay people, so I let it be known. I don’t like gay people and I don’t like to be around gay people,” he said while a guest on Sports Talk 790 The Ticket. “I’m homophobic. I don’t like it. It shouldn’t be in the world or in the United States.”

The discussion was sparked by last week’s announcement that retired NBA center John Amaechi is gay. The host asked Hardaway how he would interact with a gay teammate.

Yahoo

The Cavaliers’ LeBron James said he is unsure how he would react if he knew one of his teammates was gay, but the biggest issue for James is whether a teammate would keep his homosexuality a secret. “We’re like family and you take showers with each other,” James said Wednesday. “We’re on the bus together and we talk about a lot of things and if you’re not trustworthy, like admitting you’re gay, you can’t be trusted. It’s a trust factor.”

The Plain Dealer

John Amaechi thought Andrei Kirilenko was aware and accepting of his lifestyle and that Kirilenko invited Amaechi and a partner, if he had one, to a 2002 Christmas party but that Amaechi declined because he was having his own party.

Amaechi said he sent Kirilenko a $500 bottle of champagne in thanks for a gesture “that meant the world to me, especially in the middle of a dreadful season in a strange desert state that in the end provided some of the best days of my life.

“It also showed that in my own paranoia and overwhelming desire for privacy, I’d failed to give some of my teammates the benefit of the doubt,” Sheridan quoted Amaechi as writing.

Deseret News

John Amaechi played at Penn State and for five seasons in the NBA with Cleveland, Orlando and Utah.

He will announce he is gay in an upcoming book.

The book is entitled “Man in the Middle.

Amaechi, who retired in 2003, will become the first player who has played in the NBA to disclose that they are gay.

Amaechi was born in Massachusetts but raised in England, where he currently is known as a television personality.

ESPN