First openly gay NCAA tournament player hopes he’s inspired others

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DENVER, Colo – Sitting in front of his locker on the first day of his last NCAA tournament, Seton Hall guard Derrick Gordon fielded a question from a reporter that surprised him. And that just doesn’t happen very much these days.

Gordon became the first openly gay men’s college basketball player nearly two years ago while he was still playing at Massachusetts. Now he is the first to play in the NCAA tournament as the Pirates prepare to take on Gonzaga on Thursday in one of the best first-round matchups.

But back to that question.

Do you feel like a hero or are you just a guy trying to live your life? 

“There were a lot of kids out there who were killing themselves, or people who stopped playing their sport because they felt they didn’t fit in or whatever it may be,” Gordon said. “So hopefully me coming out could help them out in many ways. Looking at me playing at a top Division I school and being in the NCAA tournament, they could be like, ‘OK, if he can do it, I can do it.’”

Gordon previously played in the NCAA tournament as a freshmen at Western Kentucky and as a sophomore at UMass, but he still hadn’t came out. He said he expected it to be a topic again this week with increased attention at the NCAA tournament after Seton Hall made a somewhat surprising run to the Big East tournament title.

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But he is not only the first openly gay men’s college basketball player. He’s also the lone senior on the Seton Hall team and, at 24, its leader. He said he was embraced by his teammates as soon as he transferred from UMass last summer, as he wanted to finish his career closer to home in New Jersey.

“I mean, he brings out emotion,” said Isaiah Whitehead, the team’s leading scorer. “He brings everything.  He just picks us up when we’re down. We’re a real young group. He’s the lone senior on the team.  He really helps us in a lot of different ways. Missing shots, getting back on defense, every little thing he helps us with. He really helped us since he got here in the summertime.”

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Gordon is Seton Hall’s sixth man. It’s a role he embraced when he met with coach Kevin Willard while considering his transfer — after previously being a starter at UMass. He is averaging 7.9 points and 3.2 rebounds this season and has been a steady guide for his younger teammates on and off the court.

Willard recruited Gordon out of high school and knew him well, which made him very comfortable with bringing him to Seton Hall for his final season. But Willard admitted he told Gordon that he needed his full attention and commitment to basketball.

“He said, ‘Coach, I just want to go someplace and play hoops. I want to be close to home, close to my family,’ Willard said. “Once we both were on the same page, I mean, it’s 2016, you know? It’s been such a blessing having him here. Our guys accepted him right away. I mean, it was such a non-factor for me.  It was a non-factor for our guys. It was a non-factor for Seton Hall University.

“It just shows you what a great place it is to go. It was so supportive for him, I think it made the transition so easy. It’s just never been an issue. This is the first time since a year that we’ve been asked about it. It’s just a non-issue.”

Gordon says he has never regretted his decision to tell the world he is gay, despite the hate and ugliness sometimes directed at him on social media. He doesn’t mind talking about it, though he hopes to someday field more questions about what he does on the court than his sexual orientation.

“Nothing bad has come from it,” he said. “It’s all been extremely positive, just tons and tons of support from across the country. It has been really great for me honestly. When they announced that I was the first person to play on three different teams and then me being the first openly gay to play in the NCAA tournament, that is when a lot more people were reaching out and a lot more people just being very supportive. It’s definitely been big for me and the LGBT community. I don’t look at it as something I need to prove.”

Gordon says there are plenty of other gay athletes in men’s college basketball and other sports but many just haven’t decided to share that part of themselves openly yet. He said part of him hoped that would be different by now. He wanted to be an example to others and still believes he ultimately can be so he isn’t disappointed more players haven’t followed his lead.  

When it comes to college basketball, he said other players haven’t come out because they are waiting to see how he is handled by the NBA later this spring and summer following his senior season. He hopes to play professionally and believes some might be worried that being openly gay might hurt their chances.

“It’s not [a disappointment], honestly, because I think it all starts with people have to be comfortable in their own skin,” Gordon said. “Everybody has to do it on their time when they’re ready. I guess a lot of people are waiting to see what happens with me after the season and everything and go from there because a lot of people didn’t want to do it because it might affect them going to the NBA.”

In two seasons following his announcement, Gordon said he has ‘never once’ been heckled about being gay by opposing fans on the road.

Gordon said when he played at UMass and the Minutemen had a road game at LSU, he was warned it might be one of the places he could get heckled. He said it turned out to be a place where he received a lot of support from fans after the game.

Does he think that means we have grown as a society?

“Yeah, I would hope so,” he said. “It’s 2016. I hope in the future more and more people decide to come out and that it’s just not a story. There are a lot of people who are gay and nobody knows, but they make it a story. So I just hope moving forward, I mean, I kind of new it was going to blow up because I was the first one, but I hope down the line that it isn’t this whole big story and people can just worry about me as a basketball player. That’s what I want.”

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[Kyle Ringo is the assistant editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KyleRingo Reply Reply to All Forward More