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Interview With Sheryl Swoopes

Almost two years after Sheryl Swoopes came out, no other active WNBA players have followed her lead and come out. This season, Swoopes has missed several Houston Comets games because of a bulging disc, and she was forced to miss the All-Star Game on July 15 for the first time since 2001.

We recently talked to Swoopes from the bench about her plans to open a sports bar; the lack of women coaches in the WNBA; the sacrifices her partner, Alisa Scott, has had to make since Swoopes came out; and starring in NBA Street Homecourt, the first-ever video game to feature WNBA players.

AfterEllen.com: You have already accomplished some amazing things in basketball. What are some of the goals you have left with the Comets? Sheryl Swoopes: With a lot of things changing this season – new owners, new coach – handling that in itself is a challenge. I would love to win another championship. If it happens this season that would be great, especially because this could possibly be my last year.

AE: How is your partner, Alisa Scott, doing? I understand she has gotten out of coaching. SS: She is actually doing massage therapy. Coaching is her passion and what she wants to do and where she wants to be.

There is definitely a need for good female coaches. In the WNBA and in college, I see teams leaning towards former NBA players – and men in general – as coaches, and that is a slap in the face, because there are so many quality, qualified females out there that should be given the opportunity to coach.

It’s not that she didn’t want to coach anymore, it was that she had to do something different. The biggest problem was us being together and her being a coach, and I think that’s unfortunate.

Because of that, she has had to change her career. It’s a battle that we are never going to win. I don’t think she will be given the opportunity [to coach] until I’m retired, period. And that frustrates me, because I don’t think that’s right.

You have husbands and wives, boyfriends and girlfriends working together in sports and corporate America, and whether that is right or wrong, they don’t lose jobs because of it.

AE: When you came out to ESPN, you had gay sports reporter L.Z. Granderson write your story. When John Amaechi came out, he wrote a book, Man in the Middle, to go along with his announcement. You wrote the children’s book Hoops With Swoopes a few years ago, but is an autobiography something you have thought about doing? SS: Absolutely, but I want to do it on my time, not on everybody else’s. I didn’t do it when I first came out because it would have been a rush decision and more about what other people wanted me to write. I don’t want the book to just focus on me coming out and that part of my life, because there are so many other aspects to who I am.

As a strong, black, female athlete, and as a single parent, there are so many different parts of my life that could really influence someone else’s life.

AE: Something I keep hearing is: “Sure, Sheryl came out, and it was a big deal, but the really big deal is when the guys come out.” Do you think it’s easier to come out as a woman? SS: Everything that John [Amaechi] is going through, every thought that he probably had, that entered his mind, I would promise you that I probably had those same thoughts.

My decision to do it was no easier than his decision. He is retired from the NBA, and I’m not retired, I’m still playing. I don’t think it is something that society is ready to accept, male or female. I don’t think the entire world is ever going to like it.

The men also have more money. In basketball, football and baseball, they make millions and millions of dollars a year in salaries, so they don’t have to worry about “what if I don’t have any endorsements” or “what if I don’t get any more endorsements?”

AE: It seems like it would be easier for men to come out, because they have more money to fall back on. SS: I think that is what it really comes down to. That makes it easier, because the men are set financially, even if they never got another endorsement in their lives after coming out.

AE: You were the first female basketball player to have a Nike shoe named after you, the Air Swoopes. What’s up with the shoe? Can you still buy it? SS: Nike isn’t doing that anymore. For whatever reason, women’s shoes just don’t seem to do very well. And I don’t know the reason behind that. Nike felt like they were losing money. No one in the WNBA is going to have a shoe this year.

AE: You were supposed to open a gay sports bar last year in Texas, but it never opened. What happened? SS: Like the book, I just didn’t want to jump in because it’s something people wanted me to do.

The sports bar was something I was going to do, and now I want to do more of an upscale bar and lounge where women can come in after work and have a nice glass of wine or champagne, and not have to worry about who is coming in, such as teenagers, and to relax. I want it to be more of a classy place, and the sports bar that we were doing just didn’t look like what I wanted.

AE: Your son, Jordan, is playing basketball. That can be cool, but that can also be tough to have a mom who is one of the best basketball players on the planet. SS: I want him to be himself. If he wants to play basketball, football, baseball, whatever, he can. I want him to play because he wants to.

AE: You are featured in the video game NBA Street Homecourt, a game that has female basketball players in it for the first time. SS: There is myself, Sue Bird, Tamika Catchings, Lauren Jackson, Lisa Leslie and Diana Taurasi. We play three on three against the NBA guys. All the things the guys can do in a game, we can do. The dunking, the jumping on somebody’s back, the alley oops.

I’ve only played it twice, but I’m not very good at it, so I let my son play it so he can teach me.

AE: The game pits you against NBA players like Carmelo Anthony, Rip Hamilton and Dwyane Wade. You and Hamilton recently played each other for fun, and he beat you 11-1? SS: [Laughs.] I’m better at games like Ms. Packman, the old-school games. A lot of times my son Jordan wants to play me so that he can beat me.

AE: You have played basketball overseas. Did you play this year? Women playing in sports leagues like basketball, soccer or softball overseas can make double or triple what they get paid in leagues in the United States. Why is that? SS: I didn’t play overseas this year, but those teams have sponsors and owners who pay big money, and they love women’s basketball, and it’s so competitive over there. They just don’t have as much entertainment over there. Everyone wants to win the European Championships, so they are going to pay what they have to to win.

AE: You have mentioned a number of times in interviews that being Christian is important to you and that you are searching for a church for you and your family to go to. Have you found a place? SS: No, we haven’t. If I’m going to be in a church, I want a place that is a good place for me and my family, and until I find a place that I can go and be me and not feel like I’m being judged every two minutes, then I just read my Bible at home and do my own thing.

AE: In an article I was reading on Outsports.com right after you came out, you said it would be great to get letters from fans. Do you get a lot of letters? SS: The letters I get are from men, women and kids, asking for a little bit of everything, like autographs or personal appearances.

Since my coming-out, I’ve also gotten letters from parents who have said, “Thank you for what you have done in coming out and helping me better understand how to deal with my daughter, or even my son.”

Those parents with gay kids are asking themselves, how did this happen to my child? How did they turn out this way?

Of all the things I’ve accomplished in my basketball career, to think that me coming out could possibly save one person’s life far outweighs the things I’ve accomplished on the basketball court.

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