By Roy Ward
As he mentally prepared himself for announcing to the world that he was gay, Isaac Humphries steeled himself for a negative response.
While he thought his family and his teammates would embrace him, he did wonder if opponents would weaponise his sexuality as trash talk or if others wouldn’t accept him.
Melbourne United basketballer Isaac Humphries.Credit:Melbourne United
Instead, the Melbourne United centre has been overwhelmed by the positive response from around the world and barely noticed any negativity as he became the only active male professional basketballer to be publicly gay in an announcement on November 16.
“I was expecting some stuff but there’s been a lot less, if nothing, that I’ve seen,” Humphries said on Wednesday ahead of his club’s Throwdown game against South East Melbourne Phoenix on Thursday night.
“I’m a professional athlete. I’ve been in the public eye for so much of my life that I’m very used to having bad things said about me online or whatever.
“But it’s different because it’s your character and it’s who you are and they’re attacking you – it’s pretty sad to say but there’s nothing they’re going to say that I haven’t thought or said about myself.
“So I’m all good with whatever they have to say and it looks like there’s been a lot of support from everyone else whenever anyone’s tried to say anything negative.”
Humphries admitted he hasn’t had the chance to absorb the impact of his announcement as United have been battling with injuries and fallen to 6-11 [win-loss].
“I feel very free, I feel very happy. It’s just nice to be myself everywhere and not have to filter anything or hide anything at work or with my friends or anything like that,” Humphries said.
“Everyone knows now and it went around the world, so no stone unturned, and I’m good to go.”
Humphries revealed he had received messages and support from all sorts of places including one message from a person in India.
“I had a big high when I announced it all and my family were all around me because that doesn’t happen very often as I travel the world for a living and play basketball,” Humphries said.
“It resonated with a lot of people who have shared stories with me, [one was from] somewhere in India, I can’t remember the city, but I imagine that would be a pretty difficult place to go through something like this.”
Humphries wants to get involved in helping people deal with their identity, mental health and inclusivity, and he has taken some advice retired AFL star Eddie Betts on the slow pace of change.
The pair knew each other from when they both played in Adelaide and Humphries had noticed Betts attending Melbourne games wearing an LA Lakers pride jersey.
“I just don’t want to be a poster boy for this – I want to make things happen and really help,” Humphries said.
“I want to get things done overnight but that’s not how it works.
“I spoke to Eddie Betts about how he’s making changes in the AFL and the Indigenous community and something we talked about is that it doesn’t happen overnight and it might not be able [to make change] attacking people now but attacking the younger groups of kids who will have that impact later in life.”
Melbourne United faces South East Melbourne Phoenix at John Cain Arena on Thursday at 7.30pm AEST.
