WNBA superstar Sheryl Swopes
of Houston Comets said she was encouraged to come out by cruise line that
caters to lesbians.
New York Times
October 27, 2005
Swoopes Says She Is Gay, and Exhales
By Liz Robbins
Sheryl Swoopes, the three-time most valuable player of the W.N.B.A., announced yesterday that she is gay. Encouraged by an endorsement she received from a cruise line that caters to lesbians, she said she felt as if a burden had been lifted.
"I was at a point in my life where I am just tired of having to pretend to be somebody I am not," Swoopes said in a telephone interview. "I was basically living a lie. For the last seven, eight years, I was waiting to exhale."
Swoopes, 34, a forward for the Houston Comets, was one of the original marquee players in the Women's National Basketball Association and the first woman to have a Nike shoe named for her. She is the first high-profile African-American basketball player to come out as gay.
"My purpose for doing it has nothing to do with throwing it in anybody's face," Swoopes said. "I'm not trying to make a big deal of it."
Although empowered by expressing her sexuality, Swoopes admitted to her off-court vulnerabilities and candidly discussed a potential ethical breach: She had a secret relationship with Alisa Scott, an assistant coach for the Comets from 1998 to 2004.
Swoopes, who is divorced from the father of her 8-year-old son, Jordan, said she had struggled with debt that forced her to file for bankruptcy in 2004 because she mismanaged her money. Swoopes's announcement coincided with her contract with Olivia Cruises and Resorts; it is worth about six figures, said Amy Errett, the company's chief executive. The Nike deal is Swoopes's only other endorsement.
"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.
"From a league perspective," Orender said, "our expectation is that our teams and everyone associated with our teams will conduct themselves with the utmost professionalism."
No plans to market Swoopes will change, Orender said, adding: "She is still one of our prominent players, and she's a great player. We would like Sheryl to be happy."
Swoopes, a three-time Olympian, won a national
title with Texas Tech in 1993, scoring a record 47 points in the championship
game. She gave birth to
After being named the M.V.P. last month, Swoopes,
Scott and Jordan went to
After seeing that Swoopes had booked a cruise, Errett approached her in August about a one-year endorsement deal. The golfer Rosie Jones was the first athlete to come out after securing sponsorship from Olivia. The tennis player Martina Navratilova also endorses Olivia.
Swoopes said she felt comfortable with the company's backing to announce that she was gay.
"To be perfectly honest with you, five years ago I probably wouldn't have done it," Swoopes said. "I was just afraid of what type of effect it would have, afraid of losing endorsements. I am at a point in my life where I'm very happy, very content with who I am, content with what I've accomplished."
Swoopes said that her financial situation was still not solid. Bankruptcy records from June 2004 show that Swoopes owed $711,050, including $275,000 to the Internal Revenue Service. When her Chapter 13 bankruptcy claim was dismissed last month, she had not paid all of her creditors in full.
"At this point, everything is good; I am still working on things," Swoopes said.
She attributed some problems to a bad accountant but also admitted a loss of control.
"Growing up not having a lot of money, I was suddenly in a position to change my lifestyle and help those around me," Swoopes said. "But I didn't surround myself with the right people. I got in a position where it was like, 'Oh, wow, what happened?' "
Swoopes said she hoped her experience would teach other athletes to be more fiscally responsible. She also wanted to show that she could be a role model.
Two other W.N.B.A. players have said they were gay and have come out -
Michele Van Gorp, who came out in 2004 when she
played with the Minnesota Lynx, and Sue Wicks, who did so when she was a player
for the
"I'm happy for Sheryl," Wicks, now an assistant coach at
Swoopes said she would be angry if people used her announcement to make generalities about a women's league.
"First of all, that shouldn't even be an issue," she said. "It's great talent, the competition is good, we play hard, we work hard. When you bring up any other sports league, you don't talk about how many gays and lesbians there are. The focus is on the wrong thing. It should be: are we good and do we entertain people."
- Copyright 2005 The New York Times