PART II: THOUGHT PROCESS

As the Adelaide 36ers prepare to host their first NBL Pride Round game this Saturday against Cairns Taipans, Isaac Humphries sat down to chat about how his life has changed since making the decision to tell the world he was gay.

PART II: THOUGHT PROCESS
In the lead up to his announcement, Humphries said he had a lot of thoughts go through his mind, but that was all part of the process.

“I was very scared, terrified to be honest, it was one of the hardest things I have done in my life, if not the hardest,” Humphries said.

“Bearing your soul like that and sharing something that you have literally hated about yourself and wanted to never be a thing publicly was a very weird thing to go through.

“I would never have changed how I did it or doing it in the first place at all.”

Humphries said there was some fear of the unknown, but he had a pretty good idea of how this decision could take traction and how his life would change.

“You can’t expect anything if you’re the first person doing something, so we knew we were paving our own way, we knew we were making history, we knew we were doing something quite literally no one else has done before,” Humphries said.

“I don’t think anything has surprised me, I think it’s just been such a whirlwind I haven’t been able to stop and think about what’s going on, it’s one thing to the next, to the next, to the next.”

DECISION MAKING
“No one knows their story better than themselves,” Humphries said.

“I don’t want to give advice, because that is up to the individual to figure out and understand, but everyone’s timeline is different.”

Humphries said making such a decision is daunting and understands everyone has their own timeline when it comes to such lifechanging moments.

“When you’re ready, you are ready and figure out a plan to make your announcement or start that new journey the right way,” Humphries said.

“Don’t rush it, the biggest thing is the fear of how your career will go after.

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“It’s the fear of, we have put our whole life, our whole soul into this work, we have put our bodies on the line, given up so much in our life.”

Humphries said the fear of just one announcement might take away all the hard work an athlete has done leading up to that moment.

“Sure, people will look at you differently, but at the end of the day what I have learned is my game speaks for itself,” Humphries said.

“That’s why we are here, we are here to play basketball,

“Once the lights are on and the ball gets thrown up, that’s all we are doing, we are playing basketball.”