Brittney, or as you were affectionately known around here, BG,

What a freshman year I had at Baylor. Not only did I watch another legend, RG3, win the Heisman, but I watched you lead the Baylor Lady Bears to the single most dominant season in NCAA Women’s Basketball history. 40-0. Perfection and not only perfection, but you girls crushed and destroyed and brutally mauled any team that stood between you and the perfect season. It was a beautiful thing. Needless to say, I don’t need to remind Baylor Nation of the greatness you brought to us on the court. The way your playing career here ended was heartbreaking and gut-wrenching, but I’m not even close to upset with you about that game.

What I want to address is off the court. A couple of things to establish – I am a Baylor student. I am a fan of yours. I am a Christian.

Brittney first of all I want to say that I know that I can’t understand how you felt here or how you feel about Baylor and its family now. I can’t put myself in your shoes and I can’t comprehend what it is like to be you. I have no idea what it is like to be so talented. I have no idea what it’s like to be so dominant. I have no idea what it’s like to be mocked and made fun of on a national stage, to be called names and to hear people hurling disgusting lies and insults. I have no idea how that feels and so I’m not going to act like I understand. Maybe you’re completely justified in everything you’re saying right now – but I would just like to offer some pushback from a regular student who loves Jesus and who loves Brittney Griner.

I was a fan of yours from early on. You were a sophomore in high school and my dad showed me a video of you dunking and told me you were coming to Baylor. As soon as you arrived, I was mesmerized by your play. Never have I witnessed an athlete dominate their sport to the degree that you dominated at Baylor. It was unreal. When I got to Baylor as a student, I also very quickly grew to like you as a person.

You see, those of us “regular students” who aren’t talented enough to play Division 1 sports are very wary of our athletes. We love you all, we support you all, we’ll come to defend you all – but we don’t enjoy taking classes with most of you or interacting with most of you, because let’s be honest, plenty of Baylor athletes are “better” than us and they know it. I’m not trying to rip apart Baylor’s fine student athletes – I have had the privilege in my Baylor years of having classes with Gary Franklin, Rico Gathers, Logan Lowery, Levi Norwood, Sui Masumbuko, Jake Miller, and others – all of whom I would gladly have class with, work on a group project with, or hang out with again. They are all great guys and were easy to get along with. In fact, Gary, Levi, and Logan are three guys who I could easily see myself being good friends with. But you know as well as I do that the general perception of student athletes is that you are all stuck up and arrogant.

You, Brittney, did not put off that vibe. In fact, you pulled a 180 and went the complete opposite of that perception. You were awesome! Almost every day during my freshman and sophomore years I would spot you on campus, longboarding or walking to class, and you were always smiling. You always stopped to give students hi-fives and hugs, you took pictures with anyone who asked, and you genuinely treated everyone with kindness and respect. I would laugh at people who were scared to say hello to you because I knew that you were open to it. You interacted with everybody, you treated everybody like a human being – and that is one thing I loved about you. You weren’t afraid to roll around campus looking or acting goofy. You looked like you thoroughly enjoyed being you, like you loved life and you were going to live it to the fullest. It was awesome, and it inspired a clueless punk like me to live that way. You, Brittney Griner, taught me how important it is to be myself.

Let me say this too, Brittney, about your time here at Baylor – we all knew you were gay. No one questioned it, no one doubted it. You may not have explicitly said it publicly, but just like your team knew, your student family knew. And we still treated you like a queen. We still loved you with all of our collective heart. We still wanted to talk to you, to hug you, to take pictures with you.

Like I said from the get-go, maybe some students harassed you. Maybe some said some painful things to you that hurt. Maybe some made fun of you. But I never witnessed it. In fact, what I witnessed was quite the opposite. I saw students defending you. If I ever heard one negative word about Brittney Griner as a person, which was rare, I heard 20 students backing you. If I got on Twitter and saw a mean-hearted student from Texas, Texas Tech, or dare I say Texas A&M bashing you, I saw 20 Baylor Bears fighting for you and supporting you – both your basketball play and your lifestyle. I got on message boards and saw a person or two question your lifestyle – and I saw 50 responses just like mine, who applauded your carefree attitude and your authentic kind spirit.

I have not read your book yet, obviously, so I can’t speak with certainty – but it seems like part of the goal of this book is to expose Baylor University as a place that hurt you. Brittney, please reconsider the way you feel about Baylor. Allow me a paragraph or two to defend the school I love and then I’ll shut up.

Baylor University is a Baptist school. Until the 90’s they didn’t even allow dancing on campus. It is traditionally a conservative school, and because it’s a private Christian school, it has the right to make rules on whatever issues it wants. You knew this coming here, Brittney, didn’t you? Didn’t you know that Baylor University itself wouldn’t support your homosexual lifestyle? Right or wrong, I won’t argue, but did you not know the stance the school would take when you signed to play here? As for Coach Mulkey, I saw that woman go to bat for you more times than I can count. She loved you and invested in you and never stopped believing in you. Yeah, maybe she got outcoached in the Louisville game. Yeah, maybe she didn’t always handle everything in the most effective manner. Nobody does. But Kim Mulkey loves you. And I believe with all of my heart that she didn’t tell you to remain quiet about your sexual orientation because she was ashamed or didn’t approve – I believe she was trying to protect you from starting something that could hurt your career. I believe that she was trying to keep you safe so you could be successful down the line. There are several homosexual women who have come and gone through the basketball program here, and I believe that Kim supports each and every one of you. I believe her intentions were pure and 100% to help you, not hurt you.

Lastly, and my main point, is this – Baylor Nation loves you. We’re frustrated and hurt that you seem to be using your time as a pro to bash us. Again, I am so sorry if any student or member of the Baylor family hurt you or picked on you during your time here. I will read the book and see exactly what you have to say before I say more than that. But Brittney, I promise you, there were far more of us rushing to your defense, sticking by your side, supporting you than you know. There are so many of us who did nothing but build you up while you were here. We tried very very hard, Brittney, to love and adore you not only for your play, but also for your heart and for your authenticity.

Brittney, I am a Christian, and I don’t agree with your lifestyle. There it is. But I also don’t think any less of you. I love you just as much as I love any other Baylor student. I love you because you’re a kindhearted and, I believe, good human being. Just because I don’t agree with you doesn’t mean I can’t love you. As a follower of Jesus, I’m called to love all men and women equally. I don’t do that perfectly, but I try. I do my best every day to treat homosexuals the same as heterosexuals, to treat liberals the same as conservatives, and to treat atheists the same as Christians. I don’t do it perfectly, but I promise I try. And Brittney, I promise I love and admire you for what you did here. I just wish you knew how many other students and members of Baylor Nation feel the same way. Maybe then you would reconsider some of the things you say about us.

I am forever your fan and forever your supporter. I pray that you remember how Coach Mulkey loved you and coached you for four years, training you and preparing you to be both the player and the woman you are today. I pray that you remember how many of us students had your back while you were here and did our best to love on you. Let that be your lasting memory of Baylor University. Because we saw you shine here. We saw you have fun here. We saw you be authentic here. And we loved you here.