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Jason Collins, the NBA’s first openly gay player who now serves as an ambassador for the league, is undergoing treatment for a brain tumor, his family said Thursday.
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Collins announced he was gay in 2013, becoming the first publicly gay athlete to play in any of the four main North American sports leagues. He retired in 2014 after a 13-year career that included stops with the New Jersey Nets, Memphis, Minnesota, Atlanta, Boston, Washington and back to the Nets after they moved to Brooklyn.
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His family sent a statement to the NBA on Thursday.
“Jason and his family welcome your support and prayers and kindly ask for privacy as they dedicate their attention to Jason’s health and well-being,” the statement said.
Collins, the NBA’s first openly gay player, married his partner of more than a decade in an outdoor ceremony earlier this year.
Collins, who came out in an essay written for Sports Illustrated in 2013, tied the knot with Hollywood producer Brunson Green over Memorial Day weekend in a ceremony in Austin, Tex.
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“When I was younger, I dated women,” Collins wrote in the essay. “I even got engaged. I thought I had to live a certain way. I thought I needed to marry a woman and raise kids with her. I kept telling myself the sky was red, but I always knew it was blue.”
Collins, a 13-year NBA veteran who retired in 2014, and Green, best known for his work on The Help, had been together since 2014.
According to reports, the couple got engaged in 2023 during Pride Night at a Los Angeles Lakers game.
Collins averaged 3.6 points and 3.7 rebounds in his career. In his best season, he averaged 6.4 points and 6.1 rebounds for the then-New Jersey Nets in 2004-05.
–With files from Dan Bilicki
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