John Amaechi was touched to hear that former Penn State teammates and coaches said his sexual orientation wouldn't have been an issue -- but by no means does he think his decision to stay in the closet until a week ago was misguided.

"It's lovely to hear that, but it's really, really naïve, isn't it?" Amaechi, a former Penn State basketball player who played five seasons in the NBA, said in an interview with The Daily Collegian yesterday. "If that were the case, there would be loads of out basketball players, right? If that's the case, there wouldn't be an issue with lesbians in basketball, right?

"So, I think we have already proved that wrong."

More than a week ago, Amaechi, who played at Penn State from 1992 to 1995, announced plans to release his book, Man in the Middle, Tuesday. The book discusses his life as an in-the-closet athlete, including his time in the NBA.

Amaechi, now 36 years old, said his best years were at Penn State. That is where he became involved with organizations such as "The Second Mile" and "Big Brothers, Big Sisters." It was also where his first sexual encounter occurred with a men's volleyball player.

He says he wishes that someday in the future, the last part won't be important. He doesn't want to be remembered at Penn State for being one of the greatest Penn State basketball players, or the first NBA player to announce that he is gay, because they are both "equally lame."

"My definition is not wrapped by, such as my being is not wrapped up, in how I put a ball in a hole," Amaechi said. "It's also not wrapped in being a gay person. It's just a part of it."

But Amaechi made it clear that he is no different today than he was yesterday or last week. Now he is just bombarded by a massive amount of questions that are either "not very good" or "show a great deal of ignorance."

Amaechi said he considers himself a private person, and this whole process is very uncomfortable, but he wants to educate people that there isn't an unfounded paranoia among members of the gay community who are afraid to be open about their sexuality.

He didn't run around with a fake girlfriend during his time at Penn State to hide his homosexuality, but he also didn't feel comfortable telling anyone. He kept his sexuality private, even from former Penn State assistant coach and current head coach Ed DeChellis, who is a friend he speaks with weekly.

His main focus was playing basketball "really, really well," the kind of performances that made him the No. 10 leading scorer in Penn State history. Letting anyone know about his sexuality seemed "incongruous" with what he was trying to accomplish, and would be flat-out dangerous for a person of his stature.

"If someone who you know wouldn't feel comfortable coming out, why would an athlete feel comfortable coming out?" Amaechi said. "It's not just about the potential financial ruin; it's about the psychological and emotional readiness of the individual."

The book, published by ESPN books, has been in the works for about a year-and-a-half and focuses mainly on Amaechi's philosophies as an individual. Out of the 300 pages, he estimated that only about 30 are strictly about being gay.

The issue of homosexuality, he said, is bigger than sports and it's bigger than Penn State women's basketball coach Rene Portland, who was found in violation of the university's discrimination policy on April 18, 2006.

Amaechi was never aware of discrimination within the women's program, because, as he said, he was very focused on basketball during his collegiate experience. It just upset him as a Penn Stater to hear about an event at his alma mater that emphasized a larger issue in today's society.

"The specifics of that situation are really less important to me than the global responsibility the universities and institutions of higher learning have to create an atmosphere for everybody to best learn," Amaechi said. "I think Penn State really wants that. This kind of whole conflict has made Penn State look bad, and I don't like that as an alumni."

Never would he want to dumb down his coming out to a correlation with one incident. Also, he said he would tell those who said he is out to make money with the book to, "Grow up."

The issue is much bigger than any one person. And in the "grandiose" way he said he thinks, Amaechi is out to change the world.

"Trust me when I say this. What I have done is not about Rene Portland. What I have done is far more global. It's not about 300 men in the NBA, either. This is about young kids in their high school who can't walk down their corridor without having things thrown at them. This is about people in their workplace in 33 states who have been fired for being gay. And yes, this is about sport. But it's that way around, not the other."