Amaechi's announcement comes as surprise to Hudson - 明尼蘇達灰狼 Minnesota Timberwolves

http://www.startribune.com/511/story/988294.html

Four or five heads turned, all at once, in guard Troy Hudson's direction.
Smiles and snickers quickly followed in the Timberwolves' locker room about
90 minutes before the game Wednesday at Target Center.
The question normally would have been innocuous -- so, did you know John
Amaechi fairly well? -- but not at that precise moment, not on the day that
the former NBA center more or less told the world that he was gay.

"I just knew him as a teammate," Hudson said, waving off the small audience
of Wolves players. "He was a cool guy. I didn't expect that [announcement].
He kept it pretty hush-hush."

As Mark Madsen filled in a couple of Wolves who didn't know Amaechi (he
retired in 2003) or hadn't heard the news, Hudson tuned out the locker-room
teasing. He and Amaechi played one full season together in Orlando in
2000-01.

"That's his own personal preference," Hudson said. "So you can't fault a man
for who they are or what they are. It's probably a good thing for himself
that he finally opened up. He's probably been going through a lot trying to
keep it a secret."

Amaechi, who played at Penn State before spending five seasons in the NBA,
became the first pro basketball player to openly identify himself as a
homosexual. He has a book, "Man in the Middle," coming out later this month.
And like most athletes from other team sports who have shared that info, he
waited until he no longer was an active player.

Would Amaechi have been accepted in the NBA had players, coaches and fans
known he was gay during his career?

"Probably not," Hudson said. "The majority of people in pro sports -- I mean,
in the world -- don't feel comfortable with that type of person around.
Especially in a masculine sport where you're always touching each other, you
have to take showers together. But the way I see it, if you keep it to
yourself, I don't care what you are."

From the chatter in the room -- with one player saying, "I hope he tells on
everybody. I want to know" -- Hudson probably was right.

As for fans heckling a gay player, the Wolves guard said: "They definitely
would do that. It's a cruel world."

Davis: 'It's cool'

Wolves swingman Ricky Davis had avoided reporters' questions through three
media sessions -- postgame Monday, practice Tuesday and shootaround Wednesday
morning -- but finally talked before Wednesday night's game about coach Randy
Wittman's decision not to start him in the second half of Minnesota's blowout
loss at Houston.

"It was a little frustrating. But he's the coach," Davis said. "That's the
change he made. You've got to live with it. ... It wasn't a real big deal. We
were down 20. He wanted to find some energy."

Davis said he and Wittman had not discussed the move since it happened. The
Wolves' second-leading scorer was back in the starting lineup Wednesday night
against Golden State. "You just live with it," Davis said. "You go out and do
what the coaches want. Everything's cool."

With Wittman, too, it seemed.

"I don't have any lingering effects with anybody," Wittman said. "I'm just,
as a coach, trying to get things headed in the direction that we need.
Decisions are based upon that. There's nothing with anybody on this team.
We're going with the same lineup, and we'll see where we're at by how we
react tonight."


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