The NCAA now has its first openly gay Division 1 hoopster

Derrick Gordon has come out as the first openly gay active male college basketball player in Division I history.

The UMass guard — a redshirt sophomore who hails from Plainfield, NJ, and attended St. Patrick in Elizabeth — came out to his teammates last Wednesday, according to an espnW story.

Gordon’s gotten help from coach Derek Kellogg to deliver his message to the team.

Kellogg had called an impromptu team meeting and said, “We’re all here together, and we need to love each other for who we are. One of your family members, your brother, wants to let you know something about himself.”

Gordon wasn’t immediately able to speak up, so Kellogg said, “I wanted to let you all know I’m gay.”

His players looked around in shock, but then Gordon said, “No, he’s not. But I am.”

Gordon said he was greeted with immediate support.

Strength and conditioning coach Richie Hogans said, “You’re part of our family. We’re going to be there for you, and this doesn’t change anything.”

Sophomore guard Trey Davis was the first player to speak up, saying, “We got you, DG. You’re one of us.”

Gordon, a transfer from Western Kentucky, said he first entertained the possibility of coming out following the season. UMass made the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1998 but lost in the first round to No. 11 seed Tennessee.

“I was thinking about summer plans and just being around my teammates and how it was going to be,” he told espnW. “I just thought, ‘Why not now? Why not do it in the offseason when it’s the perfect time to let my teammates know and everybody know my sexuality?'”

Gordon said he accepted his sexuality while he was a freshman, and was waiting for the right time to share it with the world.

“It was a rough process, actually, leading up to this. Those guys just helped me get to where I am right now,” he said. “If it wasn’t for them, I’d be stuck. For this to be happening right now, me coming out, it’s an indescribable feeling, honestly. I couldn’t be any happier. I feel like I can fly.”

Despite the outpouring of support he received from his teammates, things were initially tough for Gordon.

Last summer, Gordon’s then-boyfriend posted an Instagram photo of the two of them in front of a gay bar on the Jersey Shore. After he “liked” the photo, his teammates suspected he was gay. The whispers became loud, and Gordon got upset.

“That was probably the lowest point I was ever at,” he told OutSports.com. “I didn’t want to play basketball anymore. I just wanted to run and hide somewhere. I used to go back to my room and I’d just cry. There were nights when I would cry myself to sleep. Nobody should ever feel that way.”

In his first season at UMass, Gordon averaged 9.4 points per game on 47 percent shooting. But off the court, he felt that he wasn’t able to be himself.

“I was just afraid that if I was to go to a party or a gay club in Boston, someone might spot me,” he said. “I was well-known in the Massachusetts area. I didn’t want to do anything where someone could recognize me.”

Gordon said he was on the verge of quitting basketball, but his outlook changed when he began to have more frequent conversations with Wade Davis, who spent time on the rosters of three NFL teams and is now executive director of You Can Play, an organization aimed at eradicating homophobia in professional sports.

“He seemed lost and confused,” Davis said of Gordon, according to OutSports.com. “He was searching for family, searching for a space where he could be himself. I don’t think he had that on his team, and he hadn’t met other gay males whom he could connect with. He was trying to navigate his love of basketball with his need to be his authentic self. He was bordering on depression.”

Meeting with Davis helped convince Gordon to come out, and with the burden lifted, Gordon celebrated by partying at a gay bar in New York City this past weekend.

“”Happy’ is not even the word,” he told OutSports.com. “It’s a great feeling. I haven’t felt like this. Ever. It’s a lot of weight lifted off my shoulders. I can finally breathe now and live life happily. I told all the people I need to tell.”