Jason Collins Retiring, Claims To ‘Personally’ Know Other Gay Pro Athletes


NBA player Jason Collins recently announced his upcoming retirement within an essay published by Sports Illustrated.

Jason Collins has been a professional athlete in the NBA for 13 years. However, in his essay, the 35-year-old former Brooklyn Nets player focuses on the past 18 months, since that was how much time he spent as an openly gay NBA player.

“It has been 18 exhilarating months since I came out in Sports Illustrated as the first openly gay man in one of the four major professional team sports. And it has been nine months since I signed with the Nets and became the first openly gay male athlete to appear in a game in one of those leagues.”

Jason Collins goes on to discuss that there are still no professional sports players that are openly gay in the NFL, NHL or MLB. However, he states that they do exist and even claims to “know some of them personally.”

In his own words, Jason Collins implies that one of the main reasons why other gay professional athletes (including those that he may personally know) have not come forward is because of fear as well as the inability to live an “authentic” lifestyle.

“When we get to the point where a gay pro athlete is no longer forced to live in fear that he’ll be shunned by teammates or outed by tabloids… where he plays while his significant other waits in the family room… where’s not compelled to hide his true self and is able to live an authentic life, then coming out won’t be such a big deal.”

Jason Collins plans to make the official announcement of his retirement at the Barclays Center on Wednesday night, when the Brooklyn Nets play against the Milwaukee Bucks.

Collins states that the game will have a special meaning for him since the head coach of the Bucks is also his former teammate, Jason Kidd. After Jason Collins came out publicly, Jason Kidd expressed his support on Twitter — an act of kindness that Collins also mentions in his essay.

Jason Collins was selected as the 18th overall pick in the first round of the 2001 NBA draft by the Houston Rockets. The Star confirms that Collins dated former WNBA center Carolyn Moos for eight years. They were engaged to be married until Jason called off the wedding in 2009.

[Image Credit: Chat Sports]

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