Sebastian Vega Leads Boca Juniors To Title, Celebrates With Pride Flag
Some wins are bigger than the final score. According to Outsports, after his team Boca Juniors clinched Argentina’s national basketball league title, Sebastián Vega found a moment for himself. He climbed onto the hoop, draped the basketball net around his neck, and raised a rainbow flag for the whole arena to see. It was a powerful statement from one of the few openly gay male professional basketball players in the world.
A win this big deserves a moment to match.
The victory itself was a nail-biter. Boca Juniors edged out their rivals Instituto 78 to 77 in the seventh and final game of the series. Vega was instrumental in the win, delivering an impressive 14 points, eight rebounds, four assists, and two steals. After the game, he made his intentions clear. “It’s a message of self-improvement,” he told reporters in Buenos Aires. “Everyone can be who they want and achieve their goals.”
Of course, not everyone was cheering…
As the championship series intensified, Vega became a target of homophobic abuse. While he takes it in his stride, he acknowledges the toll it takes. “I’m strong, I can handle it,” he said. “The ones who suffer the most are my family.” This makes the reaction from the crowd even more meaningful. “The most beautiful thing is that when I raised the flag, all the Boca fans applauded me and were very proud.
I think that image will be indelible in my life.” Support also came from the league itself, with the LNB’s official Instagram account sharing the photo, and from other out South American athletes like field hockey Olympian Nico Keenan and Chilean basketballer Daniel Arcos.
The flag was more than just a celebration.
Vega, now 37, first came out publicly in March 2020 when he was 31. Already out to his family and friends, he found the pressure of hiding his identity in the hyper-masculine world of professional sports to be mentally draining. In a later interview with ESPN, he explained his reasoning. “I felt neither free nor calm… I was harming myself, and I didn’t see why I had to hide things.”
[DEPORTES] Con la bandera del orgullo, "Seba" Vega, estrella de Boca, festejó la obtención de la Liga Nacional de Básquet. 🏳️🌈
— ElCanciller.com (@elcancillercom) July 21, 2025
📹 @catalinasarra https://t.co/j5YJgZJSwZ pic.twitter.com/2QXPw2Yizu
He also recognised he had a part to play. “I knew that the basketball environment is pretty macho, and I felt that me not doing anything… I was contributing to that stigma.” He has since become the role model he searched for online but could never find, even providing advice to Daniel Arcos before he came out.
This is Vega’s fourth national league championship, a testament to a long and successful career. His visibility adds another dimension to that success. While players like Jason Collins, who came out while active in the National Basketball Association (NBA), and Isaac Humphries, who plays in Australia’s National Basketball League (NBL), have pushed boundaries, openly gay men remain a rarity at the top of the sport. Vega is proving that being yourself and being a champion can, and should, go hand in hand.
As he told reporters, the key is the support system around you. “I’m very grateful because my teammates always let me be, and that made me feel very comfortable on the court.”
