NBA Has First Openly Gay Player

Published on 29-Apr-2013 by Stacey Mickles

Basketball - NBA    NBA Daily Update

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NBA Has First Openly Gay Player

For weeks, we've been hearing stories that the NFL would have four openly gay players in a sports league.

That hasn't happened yet, but maybe it will now because of Jason Collins.

Who is Jason Collins you may asked? I asked the same question. I had and still have no idea who this man is. It's possible that he is only known to general managers looking to fill out a bench or meet salary cap minimums.

Now he's known to a wider range of trending headline hunters.

Collins is a 12-year NBA veteran who played for the Boston Celtics and was last seen with the Washington Wizards.

He said he felt the need to come out because of the bombings that took place in Boston two weeks ago and because of his friend Joe Kennedy, who marched recently in a gay parade as a straight man supporting gay rights.

"The recent Boston Marathon bombing reinforced the notion that I shouldn't wait for the circumstances of my coming out to be perfect. Things can change in an instant, so why not live truthfully?

"When I told Joe a few weeks ago that I was gay, he was grateful that I trusted him. He asked me to join him in 2013. We'll be marching on June 8."

Collins talks more about his decision in Sports Illustrated. We all knew this day would come, but who knew it would be an NBA player to break down this barrier?

I think the best part of all of this is that, hopefully soon, this will encourage others to come out. Maybe then the subject will become a non-story, and we can go back to discussing sports.