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Collins, NBA’s 1st openly gay player, retires
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JASON Collins, who became the National Basketball Association’s first openly gay player, retired aged 35 on Wednesday but vowed he would continue the fight to make US sports more tolerant.
Collins, who played 22 games for the Brooklyn Nets last year, announced his decision in an article for Sports Illustrated, writing that “basketball saved me”.
“In order to understand why I am so lucky to be sitting here today as a person who is finally comfortable in his own skin, you need to understand how basketball saved me,” Collins wrote. “I needed to live the past few years as an openly gay basketball player in order to be at peace retiring today.”
Collins was not on an NBA roster this season. Following Collins’ coming out, US college football player Michael Sam revealed in February that he too was gay.
Collins said he would encourage other gay athletes in North America’s professional sports to come out.
“There are still no publicly gay players in the NFL, NHL or major league baseball,” wrote Collins, who became the first openly gay NBA player when he took the floor for a February 23 game against the Los Angeles Lakers.
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