John Amaechi

John Uzoma Ekwugha Amaechi is an English former professional basketball player who became a psychologist and consultant after retiring from the sport. He played college basketball for Vanderbilt and Penn State before a professional career in the NBA and in leagues in France, Greece, Italy and the United Kingdom. After basketball he trained as a psychologist and founded the consulting firm Amaechi Performance Systems. In February 2007 he became the first former NBA player to publicly come out as gay, through his memoir Man in the Middle, which made him one of the most prominent openly gay former professional athletes.