Sheryl Swoopes - Out of the Closet And Onto The Court

November 4, 2005
By: Dave Zirin

What

What’s the sound of a good story smothered? Ask Sheryl Swoopes. Swoopes is the most prominent women’s basketball player of her generation: a five-time all-star, three-time Olympic gold medalist and the WNBA’s only three-time MVP. And in a tribute only corporate America could render, Swoopes is the only female player to have her own basketball shoe: Nike’s Air Swoopes.

The 34-year-old Houston Comet veteran just delivered what could be the most significant body blow to homophobia ever weathered by the athletic-industrial complex. She has come out of the closet with pride, defiance and a palpable sense of joy.

But Swoopes’s announcement has been met in the sports press with what the Associated Press correctly described as “a shrug of indifference.” San Jose Mercury News columnist John Ryan wrote, “Let’s face it: On the list of shocking headlines,