Brittney Griner has said that her
former coach at Baylor University, Kim Mulkey, asked her to remain
closeted.
Griner came out gay last month. She
now heads to the WBNA's Phoenix Mercury.
“It was a recruiting thing,” Griner
told espnW.com.
“The coaches thought that if it seemed like they condoned it,
people wouldn't let their kids come play for Baylor.”
She added it “was more of unwritten
law” to keep quiet about one's sexuality.
“It was just kind of, like, one of
those things, you know, jut don't do it. They kind of tried to make
it, like, 'Why put your business out on the street like that?'”
The Waco-based private Baptist school's
student handbook promotes “marriage between a man and a woman” as
the “biblical norm.”
Griner reiterated that her team,
including Mulkey, knew of her sexual orientation.
“I told Coach [Mulkey] when she was
recruiting me. I was like, 'I'm gay. I hope that's not a problem,'
and she told me that it wasn't. I mean, my teammates knew, obviously
they all knew. Everybody knew about it.”
Mulkey refused to comment, instead
referring espnW.com to an earlier statement in which she praised
Griner as a “celebrated member of the Baylor family.”
(Related: Brittney
Griner says she's 6-foot-8 of proof it gets better.)