Cool with Collins
SAN FRANCISCO – With the Nets still searching for a frontcourt player and with Jason Collins on their radar, players made it very clear on Friday that they’d accept the NBA’s first openly gay player “with open arms,” as Joe Johnson said.
“Everybody here is pretty much comfortable in their own skin.”
Coach Jason Kidd, who worked out Collins this week with the idea that the Nets may sign his former teammate to a 10-day contract, said he’d have a discussion with Nets general manager Billy King on Friday about their options, with Collins on the agenda.
Sources confirmed that the Nets’ top choice is free agent Glen (Big Baby) Davis, who reached a buyout with the Magic on Friday. According to Yahoo!, coach Doc Rivers and the Clippers are the front-runners to land Davis, but Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce are trying to recruit their former Boston teammate to Brooklyn.
Davis played four seasons with the Celtics, winning a championship in 2008.
While the 28-year-old Davis is the younger and more coveted option, Collins is the historic choice. Deron Williams said the league is ready to handle a gay player.
“It’s 2014. (NFL prospect) Michael Sam just came out, and his teammates welcomed him, and they’re in college,” Williams said. “It’s time for the NBA as well.”
Still, Williams understands a Collins signing would result in a media storm, and he believes that is why nobody has given the 36-year-old backup center a contract. Collins hasn’t played since April of last year, just about a week before he revealed his sexuality in a Sports Illustrated article.
“He’s a solid role player. It’s just the distraction thing, that might be the thing that’s deterring teams,” Williams said. “But like I said, with us I don’t see that being a problem. The team we have, the coaching staff we have will definitely welcome him.
“It’s not him being a distraction, it’s just the media coming along with it, because every city you go to it’s not just like you answer a question once and then it’s over with. It’s a reccurring thing. But like I said, I don’t see that being a problem with us (because we’re a veteran team).”
The Nets are one of the worst rebounding and interior defending teams in the NBA, with two open roster spots and a starting center on a minutes restriction. According to Kidd, the hope is to further lower Garnett’s minutes from his 21.3 per game “so we don’t have to wear him out.”
If the Nets can’t land Davis and the reinforcement becomes Collins, Brooklyn seems like it would be a comfortable landing spot.
“You are who you are,” Andray Blatche said. “I don’t have a problem with (Collins). I’m pretty sure nobody on this team has a problem with him. ”
NOT YET FOR NET: Marcus Thornton joined the Nets but wasn’t allowed to practice Friday because the physicals weren’t completed for other players involved in the trade that brought him from Sacramento on Thursday.