This week, former NBA star Eddy Curry was slapped with a lawsuit after he penned an op-ed titled “The Truth Was Was Worse” for The Players Tribune about his decade-old gay sex scandal that most people had completely forgotten about.
In 2009, Curry was sued by his former limo driver, David Kuchinsky for sexual harassment. The dispute eventually went into arbitration and Curry quietly settled with Kuchinsky for $300,000.
Cut to 11 years later.
In February of this year, Curry opened up about the scandal to The Players Tribune and accused Kuchinsky of being a liar. Well, Kuchinsky didn’t like that very much because this week, he hit Curry with another lawsuit, this time claiming he violated their confidentiality agreement.
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“Not only did Curry fail to meet the expectations that us fans had after he signed a contract with the Knicks,” Kuchinsky’s attorney, Matthew Blit, said in a statement this week, “he failed to adhere to his contract with Mr. Kuchinsky.”
And just like that, Curry and the gay sex scandal he wanted everyone to forget were back in the news.
Here are nine more professional athletes who have struggled their shed their alleged gay pasts…
Dwight Howard
The Los Angeles Laker found himself at the center of gay rumors two years ago when a man claimed he had engaged in a sexual relationship with the NBA star and that he later offered him “hush money” in exchange for signing an NDA. Howard denied the rumors. In July 2019, he told an interviewer the whole thing helped him understand why so many people are still afraid to come out. “I saw how a lot of people would feel,” he said while talking about the hate mail he received. “People are afraid to be who they are.”
Related: NBA superstar Dwight Howard says gay rumors “set me free”
Tim Tebow
The former-NFL-quaterback-turned-MLB-outfielder is a devout Christian. So devout that, in 2012 and 2013, he used his platform as a professional athlete to promote faith-based abstinence and publicly stated he was saving himself for marriage. He even signed a “Statement of Sexual Purity” that proclaimed sex outside marriage was unacceptable and homosexual acts were a sin. This led many to believe he was secretly gay. Tebow, now 33 and still unmarried, has never addressed the rumors.
Related: Saintly QB Tim Tebow To Give Talk At Rabidly Anti-Gay Megachurch
Odell Beckham Jr.
Reports that the New York Giant might be gay first began circulating a couple of years ago after he got into a fight with fellow player Jason Norman of the Carolina Panthers, who called him a “f*ggot.” Last summer, Beckham told GQ, “Honestly, I wasn’t offended. I’ve never once had no problem with anybody who has their own personal life that they live. I have friends who are gay.” He went on to say he has “no problem with anyone’s sexual orientation,” adding that “Love is love. If you’re attracted to somebody, you’re attracted to somebody.”
Related: New York Giants football star Odell Beckham Jr. addresses gay rumors head on
Tim Duncan
After the NBA All-Star’s marriage fell apart in 2013, reports that the relationship ended because he had been “messing around” with his male BFF from college, who he purportedly bought a million-dollar condo for to keep as their private love nest began swirling. Unfortunately, we’ll never know for sure since a gag order was placed on the divorce proceedings.
Related: NBA All-Star Tim Duncan’s Divorce Allegedly Sparked By Gay Affair
Aaron Rogers
Chatter that the Green Bay Packers quarterback was in a long-term relationship with his personal assistant/roommate first began in 2013. Though Rogers never addressed the reports, his Evangelical father did, putting out a statement calling the whole thing “disgusting.” The rumors resurfaced again just last month when Rogers’ ex-girlfriend, actress Olivia Munn, told an interviewer that she had this “one boyfriend” who refused to go down on her and would only have sex from behind with the lights off, leading her to believe that he was gay. Though she didn’t call Rogers out by name, many assumed that’s who she was talking about.
Related: Olivia Munn unleashes homophobic micro-aggressions on ex-boyfriend before outing him on podcast
Troy Aikmen
Speculation about the NFL hall of famer’s sexuality first began in 1995 when sports columnist Skip Bayless claimed he was into both men and women. Aikman, who believes homosexuality a “lifestyle choice,” denied the accusation, but Bayless insisted it was true, saying “A number of the black players, with whom I was close, contended that Aikman was bisexual.” In 2016, nearly 20 years later, Aikmen expressed that he was still upset about the whole thing when he trashed Bayless in a Sports Illustrated interview.
Related: Troy Aikman Is Still Not Over Skip Bayless Speculating He Might Be Gay Over 20 Years Ago
Kordell Stewart
The former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback spent much of his career dodging reports about his sexuality, right up until his retirement in 2012. People sort of forgot about it for a while. Then in 2015, they began gossiping again after Andrew Caldwell, best known for his breathless pulpit proclamation “I’m not gay no more!”, announced he and Stewart were lovers. Stewart, irritated, responded by telling TMZ, “There’s no room in my personality for that lifestyle. It’s not what I believe in.”
Related: Former NFLer Kordell Stewart Denies Romance With Andrew “I’m Not Gay No More” Caldwell
Mike Piazza
The retired baseball player addressed the gay rumors that followed him during the last six years of his career in his 2013 memoir Long Shot, writing, “I don’t know where the rumor came from, although I’ve heard many theories, including one that I suppose makes the most sense to me, involving a former teammate and his agent.” Nevertheless, the rumors persisted. Piazza later told an interviewer, “I can’t control what people think. I can say I’m heterosexual. I date women. That’s pretty much it.”
Related: Mike Piazza Wants You To Know He’s Absolutely, Definitely Not Gay
Nick Young
Wait a minute … Nick Young??? 2020 is toooooooo much pic.twitter.com/DdplCj3HXb
— Nasir. (@NasirLeigh) April 13, 2020
The Los Angeles Laker took to Instagram this past April to clear the air about his sexuality after he commented “sexy lips” on one guy’s Instagram page and then was photographed holding another guy’s hand. The other guy ended up being fellow NBA player Jordan Clarkson’s younger brother, Bear, who is a friend of Young’s. After initially joking with Bear that it was “time to come out,” Young put out a second statement saying he was “fooling” and that it was supposed to be a joke.
Related: NBA star Nick Young addresses gay rumors after being photographed with another man
Al
This article needs to be updated. Tim Tebow was married this year, to a former Miss Universe from South Africa
jjose712
He won’t be the first gay devout christian who married a woman
amanwithanedge
yep, they’re all gay as hell.
winemaker
Nevr heard of many of them and really who really cares about these guys and heir personal lives? Most of us have better things to do with our time than follow this drama.
UlfRaynor
Seriously? It’s 2020 and a gay news site that says it’s all about diversity and acceptance, allowing people to express who they self identify as, is still okay with mislabeling people and sex shaming them so long as they are the ones doing it?
mudgeguy
I can’t believe this either. If they’re straight/gai/bi/alien who the F cares? Don’t gay men want the hets to just leave us alone and stop jeopardising our lives and careers with speculation and innuendo, and yet this article does exactly that. The hipster hypocrisy mentally this century is so counterintuitive and productive.
bsg1967
Who cares? Seriously who cares
IndependentForever
Regarding Tebow. Haven’t we learned not to believe a “devout Christian” when it comes to a denial of them being gay? Keeping that in mind, Tebow’s “Statement of Sexual Purity” is worthless. Also, the fact he is now married is irrelevant. Funny thing, if Tebow were to come out if he is in fact gay, wouldn’t be a big deal to the gay community. Most would in fact embrace him. It is his maniacal, fanatical Christian mob that would no doubt turn on him.