{"id":5390,"date":"2011-05-17T11:04:38","date_gmt":"2011-05-17T11:04:38","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-05-17T11:04:38","modified_gmt":"2011-05-17T11:04:38","slug":"basketball-s-phoenix-suns-president-becomes-mentor-to-gay-people-in-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/proudparenting.com\/2011\/05\/basketball-s-phoenix-suns-president-becomes-mentor-to-gay-people-in-sports\/","title":{"rendered":"Basketball&#8217;s Phoenix Suns president becomes mentor to gay people in sports"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Rick Welts [pic], president and chief executive of the Phoenix Suns recently explained to his colleagues and the press that he wants to &#8220;pierce the silence that envelops the subject of homosexuality in men&#8217;s team sports&#8221;. <\/p>\n<p>Last month he came out to David Stern, commissioner of the NBA and for the first time in their 30-year friendship, they hugged. <\/p>\n<p>He wants to be a mentor to gay people who harbor doubts about a sports career, whether on the court or in the front office. Most of all, he wants to feel whole, authentic.  <\/p>\n<p>Welts, 58, has spent 40 years in sports, rising from ball boy with the Sonics to NBA executive to team president.<\/p>\n<p>[via <a href=\"http:\/\/seattletimes.nwsource.com\/html\/nba\/2015064831_weltz16.html\" target=\"_blank\">The Seattle Times<\/a>]<\/p>\n<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#appId=172516468500&amp;xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:comments numposts=\"10\" width=\"425\" publish_feed=\"true\"><\/fb:comments><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rick Welts [pic], president and chief executive of the Phoenix Suns recently explained to his colleagues and the press that<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,195],"tags":[648,11495],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.3 - 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