Jason Collins, First Active N.B.A. Player to Come Out as Gay, Dies at 47 [View all]

Jason Collins, a 7-foot center and N.B.A. journeyman who in 2013 became the first openly gay player in any of the four traditional major American men’s sports leagues, has died. He was 47.

Adam Silver, the N.B.A. commissioner, announced the death in a statement on Tuesday. Collins’s family said he died of glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer. In December, he disclosed his diagnosis and said he was undergoing treatments.

Collins entered the N.B.A. in 2001, in a period when professional basketball was less perimeter-oriented and geared toward taller players who played closer to the rim. While he was never a scoring leader or even a full-time starter, his height, professionalism and ability to defend against other centers made him a valuable asset to six N.B.A. teams in a professional career that lasted 13 seasons.

When he retired in 2014, Collins said he hoped to be remembered as “a great teammate, someone who always sacrificed for the team.”

But his achievements on the court were eclipsed by a front-page essay he wrote in Sports Illustrated in 2013.

“I’m a 34-year-old N.B.A. center. I’m Black and I’m gay,” it began.

In the essay, Collins said he was spurred to speak publicly after his former Stanford University roommate, Joe Kennedy, a congressman from Massachusetts at the time, marched in a Pride parade in Boston.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/12/us/jason-collins-dead.html?

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