N.J.'s Derrick Gordon, 1st openly gay D1 basketball player, ready to lead for Seton Hall
By Jeremy Schneider | NJ Advance Media For NJ.com
October 30, 2015
SOUTH ORANGE — There was a point last spring when it became clear that Seton Hall had a chance to land UMass transfer Derrick Gordon — a 6-foot-3 guard from Plainfield, N.J., known for his tenacious defense, and for being the first openly gay Division 1 basketball player.
When coach Kevin Willard took the temperature of the locker room, it was quickly evident his players were much more interested in Gordon's defense than his sexual orientation.
"I have a great group of guys. I got them all together and said, 'Hey, we've got a chance to get Derrick. Everyone knows. Does anybody have an issue?' They all looked at me and said, 'Coach, as long as he can help us win games, that's what it's all about,'" Willard said at the team's media day on Thursday. "They've welcomed him. He has been great. He has spent the extra time getting to know the guys. His personal life is his personal life. No one asks me about my personal life, I don't ask about anyone else's personal life. So we're just happy to have him. We're happy to have a great role model on and off the court."
Gordon garnered one of the biggest crowds of reporters in Walsh Gymnasium on Thursday, with his decision to come out as gay in April the focus of many questions. He's proud of his status as a pioneer for the LGBT community, but is clearly more focused on his last season of college basketball before he hopes to play professionally.
"At first, it was all new to me, of course. I'm the first one that's ever done it, so it's always going to be a story regardless of what happens unless someone else does it," Gordon said of balancing basketball and his status as a trailblazer. "This is my last year. I don't want any distractions, especially me trying to build my resume and everything for the NBA draft, I want them to be able to see I am somebody who's just focused on basketball and not the other aspects."
A First Team All-State selection and the Union County Player of the Year in 2011 at St. Patrick's High School in Elizabeth, Gordon spent one season at Western Kentucky and two at UMass He transferred to Seton Hall this past spring as a graduate student, making him eligible immediately.
With the loss of lead scorer Sterling Gibbs to transfer in the offseason, the Pirates will need Gordon to make an immediate impact.
"When Sterling left, it was 16 points (per game) and our main 3-point shooter, I think he made 35 percent of our threes. As a staff, we kind of asked ourselves, you're just not going to get that at this time of year, it was April," Willard said. "When Derrick decided to transfer, what Derrick gave us was the opportunity to stop 17 points a game. He's lived up to that billing."
The Pirates' core isn't as young as it was last season, but there are still 10 underclassmen on the team's roster. The addition of a fifth-year senior who has played in two different conferences gives the team a much-needed veteran presence, and Willard has asked him to be more vocal as a leader than he's necessarily used to.
"This is my first year in this conference, but it's more like it's vintage for me," Gordon said. "I'm always used to letting my game speak for itself, now coach definitely wants me to talk a lot more. That's something I'm definitely getting more comfortable around because when I talk, my teammates listen. It's more of a sense of, when they talk, I listen. Even though I'm a vet, I can still learn from them."
Coming out has been such a liberating experience that Gordon says he would have done it years ago had he known it would be such a positive experience on and off the court.
He's gone into hostile environments like LSU and St. Bonaventure without hearing a single gay slur. He's become close friends with gay sports icons like Jason Collins of the NBA and Michael Sam of the NFL. NBA players and basketball players overseas have reached out to him. Complete strangers have come up to him after games and thanked him for helping make the lives of family members easier.
"It could have took a turn the other way, it could have been very bad for me. But it wasn't bad at all. I went into it very nervous and scared because I just wasn't sure how people were going to react," Gordon said. "Don't get me wrong, I lost a couple friends because of it. But at the end of the day, I gained plenty more."
Gordon faced what he called "blatant homophobia" during his transfer process, and he's convinced that the list of schools interested in him would have been much larger if not for the fact that he is gay. But he thinks there's a reason this chain of events brought him back to the Garden State, and his sexuality hasn't come up a single time in the locker room.
"It hasn't. Not once. And I'm so surprised. My teammates, I'm very good friends with just about all of them, but I'm real close to Veer (Singh) and Myles (Carter). We talk a lot, we talk about relationship stuff and just anything, just bonding like anybody else. They don't look at me as an outsider," Gordon said. "At the end of the day, yeah, I'm gay. But trust me, it's not going to change who I am as a person."
SOUTH ORANGE — There was a point last spring when it became clear that Seton Hall had a chance to land UMass transfer Derrick Gordon — a 6-foot-3 guard from Plainfield, N.J., known for his tenacious defense, and for being the first openly gay Division 1 basketball player.
When coach Kevin Willard took the temperature of the locker room, it was quickly evident his players were much more interested in Gordon's defense than his sexual orientation.
"I have a great group of guys. I got them all together and said, 'Hey, we've got a chance to get Derrick. Everyone knows. Does anybody have an issue?' They all looked at me and said, 'Coach, as long as he can help us win games, that's what it's all about,'" Willard said at the team's media day on Thursday. "They've welcomed him. He has been great. He has spent the extra time getting to know the guys. His personal life is his personal life. No one asks me about my personal life, I don't ask about anyone else's personal life. So we're just happy to have him. We're happy to have a great role model on and off the court."
Gordon garnered one of the biggest crowds of reporters in Walsh Gymnasium on Thursday, with his decision to come out as gay in April the focus of many questions. He's proud of his status as a pioneer for the LGBT community, but is clearly more focused on his last season of college basketball before he hopes to play professionally.
"At first, it was all new to me, of course. I'm the first one that's ever done it, so it's always going to be a story regardless of what happens unless someone else does it," Gordon said of balancing basketball and his status as a trailblazer. "This is my last year. I don't want any distractions, especially me trying to build my resume and everything for the NBA draft, I want them to be able to see I am somebody who's just focused on basketball and not the other aspects."
A First Team All-State selection and the Union County Player of the Year in 2011 at St. Patrick's High School in Elizabeth, Gordon spent one season at Western Kentucky and two at UMass He transferred to Seton Hall this past spring as a graduate student, making him eligible immediately.
With the loss of lead scorer Sterling Gibbs to transfer in the offseason, the Pirates will need Gordon to make an immediate impact.
"When Sterling left, it was 16 points (per game) and our main 3-point shooter, I think he made 35 percent of our threes. As a staff, we kind of asked ourselves, you're just not going to get that at this time of year, it was April," Willard said. "When Derrick decided to transfer, what Derrick gave us was the opportunity to stop 17 points a game. He's lived up to that billing."
The Pirates' core isn't as young as it was last season, but there are still 10 underclassmen on the team's roster. The addition of a fifth-year senior who has played in two different conferences gives the team a much-needed veteran presence, and Willard has asked him to be more vocal as a leader than he's necessarily used to.
"This is my first year in this conference, but it's more like it's vintage for me," Gordon said. "I'm always used to letting my game speak for itself, now coach definitely wants me to talk a lot more. That's something I'm definitely getting more comfortable around because when I talk, my teammates listen. It's more of a sense of, when they talk, I listen. Even though I'm a vet, I can still learn from them."
Coming out has been such a liberating experience that Gordon says he would have done it years ago had he known it would be such a positive experience on and off the court.
He's gone into hostile environments like LSU and St. Bonaventure without hearing a single gay slur. He's become close friends with gay sports icons like Jason Collins of the NBA and Michael Sam of the NFL. NBA players and basketball players overseas have reached out to him. Complete strangers have come up to him after games and thanked him for helping make the lives of family members easier.
"It could have took a turn the other way, it could have been very bad for me. But it wasn't bad at all. I went into it very nervous and scared because I just wasn't sure how people were going to react," Gordon said. "Don't get me wrong, I lost a couple friends because of it. But at the end of the day, I gained plenty more."
Gordon faced what he called "blatant homophobia" during his transfer process, and he's convinced that the list of schools interested in him would have been much larger if not for the fact that he is gay. But he thinks there's a reason this chain of events brought him back to the Garden State, and his sexuality hasn't come up a single time in the locker room.
"It hasn't. Not once. And I'm so surprised. My teammates, I'm very good friends with just about all of them, but I'm real close to Veer (Singh) and Myles (Carter). We talk a lot, we talk about relationship stuff and just anything, just bonding like anybody else. They don't look at me as an outsider," Gordon said. "At the end of the day, yeah, I'm gay. But trust me, it's not going to change who I am as a person."
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