'This is our safe haven': WNBA guard Shavonte Zellous describes how basketball has helped LGBT players

Zellous' sister was almost at Pulse nightclub the night of the Orlando shooting

(New York Liberty/Facebook

New York Liberty guard Shavonte Zellous took to the Madison Square Garden court donning rainbow-coloured sneakers with “Orlando Strong”, “Orlando United”, and “LGBT” scrawled on them - a special tribute to the victims of the mass shooting that claimed the lives of 49 people at the Pulse nightclub.

The WNBA paid special tribute to the victims of the tragic 12 June attack on LGBTQ people of colour Friday night, the beginning of Pride weekend in New York City. All six teams that played that evening practised prior to the games wearing “#Orlando United” T-shirts, some they auctioned off, with proceeds going to OrlandoFund, that benefits victims’ families affected by the violence.

But for Zellous, an openly gay player from Orlando, the tragedy hit particularly close to home.

Zellous faces off against her former team, the Indiana Fever (New York Liberty/Facebook)

Two days after the gunman opened fire in the club, Zellous, 29, penned an essay that described how her sister narrowly avoided going to Pulse.

“My sister had been on her way to Pulse on Saturday night to meet three of her friends, just as she’d also done last Saturday,” she wrote in the essay, published in The Player’s Tribune. “Her phone rang while she was driving. It was the shift manager from her job, asking her to cover the 6 am shift.

“She said yes, turned around, and went home to bed.”

Her sister’s three friends, Zellous explains, did not make it out of the club alive.

In a post-game interview with The Independent, Zellous explained that the Pulse shooting robbed the LGBTQ community of the feeling of freedom and safety that clubs once symbolised.

“When you have a club like Pulse, where you there and be free and live your life - you know, that’s your safe haven - for somebody just to take it away from you is devastating,” she said.

The basketball court, however, can restore that sense of freedom and safety, Zellous added.

“This is our safe haven. This is our job. It kind of takes your mind off the real world for a good two or three hours,” she explained. “Every week is getting better, trying to take your mind off things. Thank God for basketball. It’s something I can use to get away from thinking about what’s going on at home.”

Unlike most major professional sports leagues in the US, the WNBA has been supportive of the multiple women who have come out of the closet and thrived over the last decade. For its part, the league has been doing what it can to pass that support on to the victims in Orlando.

''We have a platform that is incredibly helpful in situations like this as sports is an international language,” WNBA president Lisa Borders told the Associated Press. “Sports is a sector that brings people together in today's environment where there is so much polarization. Our teams, all 12 of them, are doing wonderful things, from moments of silence to wearing shooting shirts. There is an array of activity across the league and country and we are very, very proud.''

In spite of the fear caused by the Orlando shooting, Zellous said she still plans to celebrate Pride weekend.

“One thing I think [the attack] did was scare a lot of LGBT people, because you go somewhere, you think you can have fun, live your life, and be yourself,” she said, “then turn around, in the blink of an eye, this is happening.

“But I can’t live in fear.”