Warriors president Rick Welts on Real Sports by rand01234
Golden State Warriors President and Chief of Operations, Rick Welts, is responsible for many things during his time in the NBA. He was the man who brought the idea of adding the Slam Dunk Contest and Three-Point Shootout to the NBA All-Star Weekend. He led the charge behind putting Magic Johnson on centerstage to educate people on AIDS and HIV after the Hall-of-Famer was diagnosed in 1991. He was also instrumental in bringing the greatest basketball team ever assembled, the 1992 Men’s Olympic Basketball team, the ‘Dream Team’ into global popularity.
Welts did all these amazing things in the NBA hiding behind one fact that he never made public. Rick Welts is gay and he wasn’t sure how him coming out would be accepted in the NBA.
Welts did eventually come out in 2011 but his story is one that needs to be told. Before Stephen Curry would set the NBA on fire with his most recent internet-breaking performance, Bryant Gumbel and the team at Real Sports got to talk to Welts about his life and how hard it was to hide the secret of being gay in the NBA for such a long time.
