Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Life In The Locker Room

Hey again

So it's been just a couple of days since my last post and life does go on :).

Anyway, this post is dedicated mostly to the locker room, not real secrets or something outrages but just my take on things and just some facts and details.

To make sure that everyone is on the same page I will just say that the looker room is usually build up of 15 players more or less in one locker room, along with a couple of physiotherapists,equipment managers and team managers that go in and out.

Of course it's not really a room, cause there is a place for treatments, the showers, the equipment rooms, some places have sauna and things of that nature.

Basically this is our mutual living place, something like the big brother, only we get to go home twice a day...

I will be honest from the beginning and say how I feel in the locker room, The showers, been half dressed or not dressed at all and everything that you can think of isn't a bother to me at all, I guess it's something I blocked out along time ago. It's never on my mind, or I'm i ever worried that something will happen or that I will feel awkward or anything else.

I don't know other gay guys in the same situation every day, but I'm pretty sure that it's a common thing, like anyone of us that also plays contact sport. Our mind is thinking about what we are doing I guess and less on things around that have nothing to do with the game.

Our time in the looker room is used to just sit and chat, get treatments, listen to music, relax, or just get the energy and the mind going before practice or a game. Just like every team in the world, whether it's in the NBA or anywhere else we have players from different countries and different mentalities.

We get along quite good, Even though just like any other work places, you have those days when you are not really up to it, but you still got to step in the room and join the rest.

To be honest, for most teams and looker rooms I have been in, there is one international subject that everyone feels happy to gossip about, besides basketball of course, and that's women.

I know it's something natural and I don't have a problem with it, somewhere down the line someone said that basketball players are just kids who haven't really grown up, they might be right.. :)

I can't really say it interests me to hear too much about every guy and his sex life and how this girl is more a ...... than others ( and u can fill it in yourself).

Must say, I don't think I'm the type that would talk about those things even if I was straight, Guess everyone is different, I'm not really a quit guy, i have my views and I make them heard, just not on those subjects.Some things I try to keep to myself,I feel that all the talk just makes it cheap sex and not my cup of tea.

Even though once in a while I will say a couple of things or tell someone about a girl hitting on me, or sending people to find out if I'm single. Don't do it too much, but just enough to avoid questions.

Also, like I wrote in one of my first posts, in basketball a lot of times the players or the team changes, so I get a fresh start and can deal with fresh faces most of the time and not to many questions.

I can't judge either, cause want it or not, basketball players or pro athletes don't have to work to hard or work at all to meet a woman or go out with one, the girls always find as, quick and often, so I guess when it's so easy, it just happens a lot.

Can say that the locker room is something different than what people usually are used to, maybe even in the way that there we all feel comfortable to be ourselves to a point. If it's towards other players, fans, coaches or what ever you can think of.

What I mean is that once you go on the court, on TV, on radio or newspapers you have to sell the same quotes and same things : " how the team is the only thing that is important, how you don't care if you scored 25 or 23 but as long as the team won, there is no I in team and things like that.

We are taught to keep it clean and diplomatic rather than what you might really think. But that's the unwritten rule and that's what is expected, so we just follow, and that's fine by me.

Anyway just wanted to give you a little look to the locker room, or to what goes around it....

Feel free if you have any Questions....

3 comments:

  1. it's very true on a team sport in the locker room- even being gay- it just is something that you don't let phase you. While it's true once in awhile you are aware that there might be someone with a good body, attractive etc- its not something that is a distraction- they are your teammates.

    And delete some emails! it bounced back! :-P

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  2. Its interesting to hear your perspective on the locker room. I agree with your assessment and that of the comment above. Swimming in college, I spent hours in a locker room of incredibly fit, good looking guys. It never occurred to me at the time to 'check guys out' or anything of that nature; part of that probably due to being around swimmers in locker rooms since childhood which made it a normal part of life (on the flipside, maybe it contributed in some part to my decision, haha). Sure I had a crush on one of my teammates in college, but that was based on personality more than anything. We shared a training room with the basketball team at our school (factory of NBA players over the years), and again sitting around in the hot tub or ice baths in barely anything still did not lead to any real sexual thoughts, it was just the way things were. Still to this day, I find it easy to differentiate between friends and people I'd be interested in romantically.

    Thanks for writing

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  3. I have to ask just one thing though.. I know back in Highschool guys would always joke and compare themselves and shit like that.. How about being adults now.. do you find that sorta thing still happens??

    I also see at the gym when i work out.. Guys do it all the time.. its odd... I know being gay i get very shy and cant look around much.. I just feel awkward but when i do look.. I see other dudes trying to catch a glimpse of others and its normal to them.. I dunno.. maybe its a straight thing and I just cant get my head around it..

    Lockerooms.. always scare me..

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