Basketball star comes out as gay
The retired athlete shared more about his romantic life for the first time during a recent interview.
Andrew Ogilvy had great success as a professional basketball player.
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Known as “AJ”, the Australian player is a three-time All-NBL first team centre, made 218 NBL appearances and also played professionally in Spain, Turkey and Germany, where he won a Basketball Bundesliga championship.
The Australian Associated Press reports that Ogilvy spent the majority of his NBL career with the Illawarra Hawks.
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He led the team to a grand final appearance in 2017, one of only five times the foundation club has made the decider.
He retired in 2022 and has now decided to open up about his personal life.
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In an interview with Adelaide 36ers star Isaac Humphries ahead of the NBL’s fourth annual Pride Round, Ogilvy came out as gay.
When asked about his decision to reveal this personal information now, he said:
There’s now a place for us to have this conversation, to be able to talk as openly as this.
He further explained that “if people want to talk to someone, people want to be able to ask opinions, ask questions, it gives them someone else to reach to.”
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What some might be more surprised by is finding out he has been married for 18 months.
The 37-year-old said he and his longtime partner met while he was playing for the Sydney Kings during the 2013/14 season.
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Ogilvy also shared that some of his teammates had known about the relationship; however, he didn’t feel comfortable enough to come out while he was still playing professionally
He acknowledges that he didn’t live his life as authentically as he could have during his career, especially in the NBL.
Part of it was a view that it was just my business, but the world shifted between our generations, when marriage equality vote rolled around [in 2017], I was very vocal around that while still not publicly saying, ‘I’m a gay man’.
During the interview, Ogilvy told Humphries that his announcement gave him the courage to do the same.
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Humphries came out publicly while playing for Melbourne United in 2022, and became the second active men’s professional basketball player to come out after NBA centre Jason Collins in 2013.
It’s not about forcing or anything, it’s just a bit of visibility for a community. Everybody is welcome. Basketball is such a universal space and universal game, why wouldn’t we also celebrate this community?
The NBL Pride Round, launched in Round 18 of the 25/26 season, will continue its focus on inclusion and celebrating diversity within basketball.
Across Pride Round games, clubs will deliver a range of inclusion-focused activations that reflect their local communities while uniting around a shared message: everyone belongs in basketball.
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Image: Adelaide 36ers/YouTube