Jason Collins Is Undergoing Treatment For A Brain Tumor

On Sept. 11, the Nationwide Basketball Affiliation introduced that Jason Collins, the league’s first overtly homosexual participant who’s now an NBA Ambassador, is in the course of receiving remedy for a mind tumor by way of a press launch.

“NBA Ambassador and 13-year veteran Jason Collins is at present present process remedy for a mind tumor. Jason and his household welcome your help and prayers and kindly ask for privateness as they dedicate their consideration to Jason’s well being and well-being,” the assertion learn.

Collins, a former first-round decide within the 2001 NBA draft, had a strong, if unremarkable 13-year-career as a middle, his most outstanding feat whereas he performed within the NBA, was his public popping out by way of a 2013 Sports activities Illustrated article. The next 12 months, after he signed with the Brooklyn Nets in free company, Collins turned the primary overtly homosexual athlete to play a sport in both the NBA, NFL, MLB, or NHL, the 4 main American sports activities.

Notably, additionally in 2013, Brittney Griner turned the primary overtly homosexual WNBA participant to be drafted out of faculty when the Phoenix Mercury drafted her with the primary total decide. Griner performed at Baylor College, a Baptist affiliated personal college. On the time, she famous in an interview with ESPN, that the setting for ladies who come out is drastically completely different than it’s for males.

In a 2023 interview with The Athletic, Collins famous that there stays a necessity for male athletes who’re homosexual to come back out, as a result of it normalizes and humanizes homosexual folks, specifically, homosexual males, who’re nonetheless usually targets of hatred.

“We’d like increasingly male athletes to step ahead in order that we will get to that day when, after the sport is over, everybody’s important different is within the household room ready for them together with all people else’s, no matter gender,” Collins advised the outlet.

In 2021, when then-Las Vegas Raiders defensive finish Carl Nassib turned the primary energetic overtly homosexual NFL participant, Collins remarked to The Los Angeles Occasions that Nassib’s choice would have an effect on individuals who he won’t ever meet.

“He’s going to have a optimistic affect on another person’s life that he might by no means meet in his lifetime. I’ve met many individuals who’ve come as much as me and advised me how my story has impacted them. However he’s going to search out that his actions have impressed not solely people who find themselves youthful than him however older than him. I can’t inform you the quantity of people that have been a long time older than me who got here as much as me and mentioned how my story impacted them. You don’t know what to say. You’re nonetheless in that mindset of being an athlete and serving to children. However he’s serving to folks throughout the board, of all ages,” Collins mentioned.

To that finish, over his final two seasons, 2012-2014, throughout which era he performed for 3 groups, the Boston Celtics, the Washington Wizards, and the aforementioned Nets, he wore quantity 98 in tribute to former College of Wyoming scholar Matthew Shepard, whose 1998 homicide helped create state and federal hate crime legal guidelines geared toward prosecuting individuals who focused homosexual folks with violence. That jersey was one of many high sellers within the league on the time, and has since been despatched to the Smithsonian Establishment.

The Stanford College males’s basketball program, the place Collins spent his school years earlier than getting into the draft, despatched their love and help to Collins and his household by way of a publish to its Twitter (X) account, as did the final group Collins performed for, the Brooklyn Nets.