This History-Making Gay NBA Executive Just Married His Partner

Rick Welts and his partner getting married.

Rick Welts is the first, and only person, to earn a championship in all three NBA leagues.

Mikelle Street

Mikelle is the former editorial director of digital for PrideMedia, guiding digital editorial and social across Out, The Advocate, Pride.com, Out Traveler, and Plus. After starting as a freelancer for Out in 2013, he joined the staff as Senior Editor working across print and digital in 2018. In early 2021 he became Out's digital director, marking a pivot to content that centered queer and trans stories and figures, exclusively. In September 2021, he was promoted to editorial director of PrideMedia. He has written cover stories on Ricky Martin, Miss Fame, Nyle DiMarco, Jeremy O. Harris, Law Roach, and Symone.

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Mikelle Street

January 13 2020 12:07 PM EST

August 02 2021 10:25 PM EST

MikelleStreet

The wedding bells are ringing kids. Ringing! On Friday Rick Welts married his long time partner Todd Gage at San Francisco's City Hall. The city's mayor London Breed oversaw the ceremony.

Welts is currently the Golden State Warriors' president and chief operating officer and has been since 2011. During his time there, he oversaw the development of the Chase Center, and helped the team win three NBA championships. Before he came to San Francisco he was the president and chief executive officer of the Phoenix Suns and Phoenix Mercury, and has also worked for the NBA league office.

He helped conceptualize All-Star Weekend events and worked on the 1992 USA Olympic "Dream Team." Talk about a star. And all of this after a start as a ball boy!

Welts is the first, and only, person to earn a championship in the NBA, WNBA, and the NBA G-League. In 2018, he was inducted in to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. We love to see it.

"At 11am today in the Mayor's office at SF City Hall, Mayor London Breed married Rick Welts and Todd Gage," Welts' official Twitter account posted. "It was a good day, nine years in the making!"

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\u201cAt 11am today in the Mayor\u2019s office at SF City Hall, Mayor @LondonBreed married Rick Welts and Todd Gage. It was a good day, nine years in the making!\u201d
— Rick Welts (@Rick Welts) 1578711673

Gage is reportedly a flight attendant.

Welts originally came out publicly in 2011. At the time he was the first senior sports executive to announce that he was gay.

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