Uri Kukia (41, 2.02) is a former Israeli basketball player, who currently serves as Elitzur Yavneh's coach and professional manager in the youth department of Maccabi Ramat Gan.
Kukia played in the power forward and center positions in senior clubs in the country, including Hapoel Jerusalem, Hapoel Tel Aviv, Hapoel Galil Elyon and Hapoel Holon, with which he won the state cup in 2009, and even played for the Israeli national team.
In 2017 he became the first active basketball player to come out of the closet.
Cuckoo has been in a relationship for about a decade with his partner Joey, and they are happily raising two daughters - ages 6 and 3.
In honor of Pride Week, Cuckoo was chosen by Adidas, along with other athletes, for a festive campaign.
What a king Uri Cuckoo ❤️❤️❤️ pic.twitter.com/msHz004huZ
- Buzz Lightyear (@MatanAlcalay) June 2, 2022
Uri, confession before we start - once when I worked for a local newspaper I gave a headline to an article about you, "Yes, the cuckoo". Now that we've closed the corner, where have you gone?
"I never left basketball and I had no such intention. I am in Elitzur Yavneh Alumni and Maccabi Ramat Gan in the youth department. Basketball has always been a part of who I am, and it has also changed in so many aspects."
Cuckoo with coach Danny Franco in Nahariya uniform, Photo: Udi Citiat
Do you think sports are catching up with society when it comes to tolerance and getting athletes out of the closet?
"Sport is not there yet in my opinion. We are making progress, but I still remember my concerns about coming out of the closet, which are not necessarily issues related to sports but to personal life and the consequences it will have. In retrospect you understand that these are irrational fears you experience with yourself. internal".
Your exit from the closet is still an unusual event in Israeli sports. Why is this so?
"I do not judge anyone and understand everyone's concerns. You ask yourself what it will do to your career, for example, and when you are a boy or a girl and you are not closed on yourself, these considerations are also part of the matter. There are more gays in professional sports in Israel, But everyone must act according to the dictates of his conscience. "
At Hapoel Jerusalem with Yuval Naimi, Photo: Dudi Vaknin
Statistically, Israeli football and basketball should contain a large number of homosexuals.
"Obviously this is the situation statistically, and there is probably a gay basketball player in the basketball Premier League today. But everyone is maturing at their own pace, and this locker room situation is indeed stressful. Israeli basketball is full of intelligent basketball players who know that if they come out of the closet nothing will happen. On the contrary - Israeli basketball is an inclusive environment that will accept them. "
I guess coming out of the closet as a footballer is a lot harder than being a basketball player.
"I think football is perhaps the most popular industry in the world, which attracts larger and more diverse amounts of populations, and for the most part things in it are a bit more extreme, whether it's homophobia, racist remarks and the like, making it difficult for players to come out of the closet, not necessarily in Israel. the world".
In the Israeli national team uniform,
Do you think a sports club, as it is supposed to talk about racism with its athletes, so it should encourage them to open up on the issue of sexual identity as well?
"A sports club is meant - probably in the teens - to prepare the guys for the society in which they live. Most of the players who come to the youth departments will not be professional players, but I think they should get tools for their next stops in life through sports: whether in the military or anywhere else. So I think we need to talk to them about it, so that they understand that this thing will accompany them in every part of their lives, and these encounters should be natural for them.
"When I came out of the closet I was told that because I was the first it would affect my career, but in the end it did not really happen. This train left the station. Maybe it will arrive late, maybe it will have malfunctions, but in ten years for example I am sure we will see a huge change in everything." .
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