ESPN Senior Writer Jeff Goodman spent the day in Amherst on Wednesday, talking with Derrick Gordon about his summer and what the junior guard expected out of the upcoming season - his first as an openly gay Division I men's basketball player.
AMHERST, Mass. -- UMass guard Derrick Gordon told ESPN that he would have quit basketball if he did not come out publicly as gay last April.
The 6-foot-2 junior, who averaged 9.4 points last season for a UMass team that lost to Tennessee in the NCAA tournament, said he was beyond miserable and was on the verge of quitting the sport.
"I was coming out or giving up basketball," Gordon told ESPN on Wednesday. "It was breaking me down."
Gordon said he had lived with the secret since when he entered college at Western Kentucky. He transferred to UMass after his freshman season and rarely -- if ever -- hung around his teammates.
"My secret," Gordon said in explaining why he was a loner in college. "I didn't want to be put in a situation where they found out."
Gordon told his parents, brother and teammates just days before making a public announcement to ESPN that he was set to become the first active Division I men's basketball player to be openly gay. Gordon said the support he's received from everyone has been overwhelming, and that his life has completely changed, although the experience wasn't quite so easy for his twin brother, Darryl.
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