{"id":1281,"date":"2013-05-01T15:50:00","date_gmt":"2013-05-01T20:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pauleide.com\/?p=1281"},"modified":"2020-08-20T22:32:05","modified_gmt":"2020-08-21T03:32:05","slug":"jason-collins-john-amaechi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/i80sportsblog.com\/jason-collins-john-amaechi\/","title":{"rendered":"Jason Collins Should Thank John Amaechi"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"

Before Jason Collins, there was John\u00a0Amaechi.\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In all the publicity over Jason Collins, John Amaechi hasn’t gotten enough credit for coming out.<\/p>\n

In all the public discussions about Jason Collins, I\u00a0don’t think we’ve heard enough about John\u00a0Amaechi, the first NBA player I\u00a0remember coming out who was still a well-known professional athlete.<\/p>\n

In 2002,\u00a0Amaechi\u00a0gave an interview that accurately summed up the public climate in that regard, at that time.<\/p>\n

“If you look at our league, minorities aren’t very well represented. There’s hardly any Hispanic players, no Asian-Americans, so that there’s no openly gay players is no real surprise. It would be like an alien dropping down from space. There’d be fear, then panic: they just wouldn’t know how to handle it.”<\/p>\n

Amaechi made the announcement about his sexuality in February of 2007, roughly three years after his last NBA regular season game. But at the time it was a huge\u00a0<\/em>deal. And in some way,\u00a0Amaechi\u00a0doubtlessly smoothed out the terrain for more athletes to come out and be open about their sexuality.<\/p>\n

Whether it was absorbing the initial public backlash, which he definitely felt, to putting a face on something that a lot of people weren’t comfortable talking about,\u00a0Amaechi\u00a0had an impact on Collins’ ability to be 100% authentic.<\/p>\n

Amaechi had so much of an impact, I would venture to say that because of what he did combined with the evolution of public acceptance, when Collins made his announcement, it wasn’t even shocking. There was never an “Oh, WOW I\u00a0can’t believe it.” moment.<\/p>\n

Not only will it not affect his brand as an NBA player, it will probably make him\u00a0more valuable<\/em> from a marketing standpoint- who would’ve predicted that 20 years ago?<\/p>\n

Sure, society has progressed and become more accepting, but Amaechi’s impact was and still is a significant benchmark.<\/p>\n

Just imagine where we will be 10 years from now.<\/p>\n

Kevin Johnson, Jason Kidd and Steve Nash<\/p>\n

Jason Kidd Retires, His Rap Career Will NEVER DIE<\/a><\/p>\n

Kerry Collins: A Better QB Than You Remember<\/a><\/p>\n

Who Was The Purest NBA Three Point Shooter of The 90s?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Before Jason Collins, there was John\u00a0Amaechi.\u00a0 In all the publicity over Jason Collins, John Amaechi hasn’t gotten enough credit for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3287,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1919],"tags":[133],"class_list":["post-1281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","tag-nba"],"yoast_head":"\nJason Collins Should Thank John Amaechi - 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