play in 22 games with Brooklyn the following season<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u201cIf I had my way, someone else would have already done this,\u201d he wrote at that time. \u201cNobody has, which is why I\u2019m raising my hand.\u201d<\/p>\n
His decision was widely lauded, with star players such as Kobe Bryant quickly speaking out in support of Collins. There was even support from the White House and then-former President Bill Clinton \u2014 whose daughter, Chelsea, went to Stanford with Collins. At Stanford, Collins was roommates with someone who was part of another American political dynasty, that being Joe Kennedy III, who spent eight years in Congress representing Massachusetts.<\/p>\n
Collins, in the piece for Sports Illustrated, wrote that he realized he needed to go public about his sexuality when Kennedy walked in Boston\u2019s gay pride parade in 2012 \u2014 but Collins couldn\u2019t do the same.<\/p>\n
Until then, Collins kept his feelings about gay rights close to the vest. He wore jersey No. 98 for the majority of his final three playing stints with Boston, Washington and Brooklyn \u2014 a nod to the year that Matthew Shepard, a gay college student in Wyoming, was killed. He also wore 46 in one game for the Nets, since it was the only jersey the team had available when he signed.<\/p>\n
Tributes poured in Tuesday from around basketball and beyond. The Human Rights Campaign, a civil rights advocacy group, released a statement that said in part, \u201cstepping forward as he did boldly changed the conversation. He was and will always be a legend for the LGBTQ+ community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Added Arn Tellem, the agent who represented Collins: \u201cRepresenting Jason Collins was one of the great honors and privileges of my life \u2014 not only as an agent, but as a counselor and confidant. … The courage he showed changed lives and transcended our game. His impact reached far beyond basketball.\u201d<\/p>\n
A moment of silence was held Tuesday before the Minnesota at San Antonio playoff game, in tribute to both Collins and Memphis Grizzlies forward Brandon Clarke \u2014 whose death was announced Tuesday as well. The Spurs lauded Collins not just for breaking barriers, but for \u201chis bravery and kindness.\u201d<\/p>\n
Collins made nearly 61% of his shots in his career at Stanford, which remains a school record. He was an honorable mention selection for The Associated Press\u2019 All-America team in 2001, a few months before the Houston Rockets took him with the 18th pick in that year\u2019s NBA draft.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a sad day for all of us associated with Stanford basketball when we lose one of the program\u2019s greats,\u201d former Stanford coach Mike Montgomery said. \u201cWe all have great memories of Jason and the kind of person he was. It\u2019s hard to separate Jarron and Jason because they thought so alike, but even though he was an identical twin, Jason was unique in his own way. The impact he had on Stanford was immense, as he could match up against anyone in the country because he was big, smart, strong and skilled, all while being a very bright and nice person.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/nba<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jason Collins, the NBA\u2019s first openly gay player who went on to become a pioneer for inclusion and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28237,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[17074,1489,17237,1283,17072,6059,7008,55,1790,50,8,4931,17235,15412,17240,17238,17236,7018,17239,2733,3044,1256,2097,9,2436,1199,7,54],"class_list":{"0":"post-28236","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-stories","8":"tag-adam-silver","9":"tag-bill-clinton","10":"tag-bill-walton","11":"tag-boston","12":"tag-brandon-clarke","13":"tag-brooklyn","14":"tag-brooklyn-nets","15":"tag-california","16":"tag-district-of-columbia","17":"tag-general-news","18":"tag-headlines","19":"tag-houston-rockets","20":"tag-jarron-collins","21":"tag-jason","22":"tag-jason-kidd","23":"tag-joe-kennedy-iii","24":"tag-matthew-shepard","25":"tag-memphis-grizzlies","26":"tag-mike-montgomery","27":"tag-nba","28":"tag-nba-basketball","29":"tag-new-york","30":"tag-new-york-city","31":"tag-news","32":"tag-notable-deaths","33":"tag-sports","34":"tag-top-stories","35":"tag-u-s-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@news\/116568175733103711","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}