You can count the number of Div. 1 college basketball players who have come out as gay or bisexual on one hand. Now count former Long Beach State 49er center Travon Free as one of the very rare openly bisexual former collegiate ballers. Free didn’t exactly light it up in college; he played in fewer and fewer games each season and never averaged more than 4 points per game in a season. Still, Free’s coming out is inspiring, and he wrote a long insightful piece on his coming out.
Being a young teen I was deathly afraid to mention my feelings to anyone, given the fact I was the basketball player who spent most of his time around other boys all the time. I didn’t want to make anyone uncomfortable nor did I want to face the possible rejection and ridicule that would come along with thinking you might be anything other than straight. I knew I couldn’t be gay because I knew I was attracted to girls sexually but I knew there was more to me than I could understand at the time.
Free is now a comedian in Los Angeles.
on Jan 26th, 2011 at 12:21 PM
Go Beach! Saw Travon play a few times before I graduated. Anytime he’d make a bucket the crowd would erupt FREEEEEEEEE. Okay “erupt” might be a stretch for how large our crowds were, but you get the idea.
on Jan 27th, 2011 at 5:47 PM
Travon grabbed 19 rebounds in a game vs. Santa Barbara his sophomore year and we thought we had the next Charles Barkley at the Beach. Alas, he had a lot of injuries and he never was able to meet his potential.
on Jan 28th, 2011 at 1:45 AM
I’m sure he’s going to be the RockDogs’ next recruit…