I'm Gay, NBA Star John Amaechi Says

John Amaechi, a former NBA player and England basketball international, is publishing a book next week in which he will reveal he is gay, becoming the first male basketball player to come out in US.

ESPN, who publishes the book, have refused to reveal the identity of the author although it it understood he will appear on their television station and in their magazine next week in advance of the February 20 publication date, The Times reports.

Amaechi was born in the US but raised in the UK by his mother, and attended Grammar School there before his basketball talent took him to high school in the US. He played at two different colleges and signed for the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA after graduation in 1995.

He then moved back to Europe and played for the French clubs Cholet and Limoges, Bologna in Italy, Greece's Panathinaikos and the Sheffield Sharks in the British Basketball League.

Amaechi returned to the NBA with the Orlando Magic in 1999-2000 and enjoyed his best season, earning him a $10 million, four-year contract. He also played for the Houston Rockets and the New York Knicks.

Amaechi's revelations is being anticipated feverishly in the US where no male basketball player has come out as gay before, even though high-profile women's basketball star Sheryl Swoopes came out last year. NBA teams and officials are steeling themselves for Amaechi's revelations and whether or not he will discuss the sexual orientation of other players.

Leaks from the book suggest that Amaechi is attacking his former coach at the Utah Jazz, Jerry Sloan, for being homophobic.

"Unbeknownst to me at the time," Amaechi writes, "Sloan had used some anti-gay innuendo to describe me. It was confirmed via e-mails from friends who worked in high-level front-office jobs with the Jazz."