Sheryl Swoopes Comes Out of the Closet

Marco · Oct 27, 2005

Initially when I heard this news this morning I was thinking more or less in terms of possible financial suicide for her coming out, admitting she was gay and risking losing all her sponsors....

Magic Johnson came out and admitted he had aids, and immediately you never saw him if front of the camera bragging up shoes or soft drinks.....the only time you really saw him after that was in commercials telling of the danger of aids......

THE POSTMAN's reply made me think a little more about this.....hell, Martha Stewart was doing quite well before the insider trading thing hit, and now everything's smooth and she has a tv show and life is bright and sunny again.....Dennis Rodman paints his hair like a clown and kicks a cameraman in the junk and life is good for Dennis.....

Wrigley · Oct 27, 2005

Sheryl Swoopes, right, with her companion
and assistant coach for the comets Alisa Scott

FROM TODAYS NY TIMES

Hopefully, this will not have a negative effect on the W.N.B.A.," Swoopes said. "Me coming out does not change what the W.N.B.A. stands for as a basketball league. I don't think there's any secret that the huge support we get comes from the gay and lesbian community. It's unfortunate that people, and those not only in the W.N.B.A., are not able to feel like they can be who they are. They lose endorsements; they lose friends and family."Told that some people would consider a relationship between a player and a coach unethical, like in any workplace, Swoopes agreed.

"Before it happened," she said, "I never really thought that a player and a coach should be in a relationship. That could cause lots of problems."

That changed when she met Scott, who supported Swoopes when her marriage to Eric Jackson was breaking up. Swoopes filed for divorce in 1999; she and Scott have been a couple for seven years.

"It all started from a friendship," Swoopes said. "I never really meant for it to happen. It did, and after a while it got to a point, 'I am not going to try to fight this anymore.' "

Swoopes said that she had never discussed her and Scott's relationship with Van Chancellor, the Comets' head coach since the league's inception in 1997. Nor did Swoopes tell him she would be making it public.

"It was a 'don't ask, don't tell' type of thing," she said.

As for her teammates, she said, "They knew, or they knew and didn't want to know."

Chancellor would not comment on the relationship between Swoopes and Scott.

"I've coached Sheryl Swoopes for nine years with the Houston Comets, as well as with the national team," he said in a statement. "What she does in her personal life is her own decision. I respect everything about Sheryl, how she's handled herself on and off the court. To me, she will always be one of the greatest ambassadors for the game of women's basketball, and a person who has helped me win four championships and two gold medals."

Donna Orender, the commissioner of the W.N.B.A., was asked if the league had any ethical concerns about Swoopes and Scott's relationship while they were with the Comets.

WILL SHE BE ALLOWED TO SLEEP WITH THE COACH ON ROAD TRIPS