Former Kentucky men’s basketball player Isaac Humphries has come out as gay, he wrote in a guest column for CNN on Tuesday.
“Over my entire career, there was no reality that existed where I could be an openly gay man while playing basketball,” he wrote. “Until now.”
Humphries grew up in Australia, where, he explained, it was difficult for him to come out. He went to an all-male private high school and wrote that he wasn’t able to be part of an LGBTQ+ community.
Humphries played college basketball in the United States, spending two seasons with Kentucky, from 2015 to ’17. He played in 61 games as a reserve forward for the Wildcats over those two seasons.
Since leaving Kentucky, Humphries has bounced around basketball leagues all over the world. His only year in the NBA was during the 2018–19 season, when he played for the Hawks and Atlanta’s G League team, then called the Erie Bayhawks. Currently, he plays for Melbourne United in the NBL.
On Twitter, Humphries posted a video of himself coming out to his teammates.
Humphries said that he always planned to come out after he retired, but in 2020, he contemplated suicide because of his depression. He added that spending time in Los Angeles while rehabbing an injury changed his mindset on how to approach his sexuality.
“In LA, it was completely different. I was around some of the most successful people in the world—everyone from musicians, television and film producers, media personalities, A-list celebrities—and got to see that being openly gay can come with joy,” he wrote.
“For the first time in my life, I saw that people at the top of their game can be open and honest about who they are, and that came with a visceral and contagious happiness.”
Humphries closed by writing that he hopes his decision to come out can help make it easier for others to do the same in his sport.
“I know what it feels like to grow up in an environment that doesn’t feel welcoming,” he wrote, “and I want to do my part to make sure basketball is no longer one of them.
The NBA released a statement following Humphries’s announcement.
