I think it's too easy to just say that there is a direct and necessary conflict between black identity and gay identity. I think it's more nuanced than that simply because I think black is a color and then people layer on top of it all kinds of socio-cultural elements.

I think in an ideal world celebrities do have a responsibility in many different areas to be role models.

I'd probably have to leave home in order to become a basketball player of any note.

In the NBA you need a little bit more than that when Jordan is front of you. You need a little bit more than that when it is Barkley or Karl Malone or Shaq or whoever else. You need a lot more than that frankly if you're the English kid who can't jump.

There was certainly nothing really sexual about my youth growing up, simply because the fact remains if you're the fat kid in a school and I was the only fat black kid in the school - in fact, I was the only black kid in the school - but if you are kind of ostracized on many different levels in your school the last thing you're worried about is sex.

We need to accept that some people are camp and some people are butch. Some people are pretty and some people are average, but we all fit.

I've been captivated by the idea of being on a basketball court and being surrounded by people who made me look a little bit less like a freak.