‘My goal is to normalize’: Suns basketball operations executive announces he is gay

Gay people have made strides in many sectors of American professional life. An openly gay man runs Apple, presides as the governor of Colorado, and an open lesbian runs a Fortune 500 company. But in the highest reaches of men’s basketball, gay people are almost invisible.

In 2011, 58-year-old Phoenix Suns CEO Rick Welts came out, becoming the league’s first openly gay executive. A longtime marketing whiz who hatched the idea for an All-Star…