Rick Welts discusses coming out and
facing the AIDS crisis in an upcoming interview.
Welts came out in 2011, making him the
first man in the world of professional sports to come out during his
career.
Welts, the president of the Golden
State Warriors, told Real Sports' Soledad O'Brien that he
realized that he was gay at age 3.
Welts said that he kept his sexuality a
secret because he feared it would ruin his career in sports.
“I just didn't see how in men's
professional sports this would fit in and I wouldn't be looked at
differently than I wanted to be looked at,” he said.
Welts added that during the early days
of the AIDS crisis he took his temperature almost daily.
“It was an incredibly difficult time.
I remember thinking, like, this is probably inevitable, right, for
any gay man to get this disease,” Welts said.
HBO will air the full interview on
Tuesday, February 23.