National Post (National Edition)
A barrier falls on a proud day
Nobody expected Jason Collins. Everybody knew that the day was coming, that one of the four major North American sports would see an openly gay player come out before his career was over, and consciously or subconsciously, everybody had an idea of what that person might be like. A star, probably. Goodlooking. Articulate. A hero.
But Jason Collins? Thirtyfour years old, a journeyman centre, a guy who spent a career being invisible, or being mistaken for his twin brother Jarron? He faced off with Shaquille O’Neal in the NBA Finals, the hardest job there was; he gave Chris Bosh fits in a first-round series once, too. But he was faceless a player as you can find, setting screens, being in position, fouling when necessary. Smart guy, admired for his toughness, a favourite of his teammates. But he was an extra in the play. Monday, with the help of
Sports Illustrated’s Frank Lidz, Collins wrote an honest, charming story about himself, and who he really was. He’s the first openly gay professional athlete in the four major sports in North America. When he told his slightly younger twin brother, Collins wrote, “He never suspected … for the first time in our lives, he wanted to step in and protect me.” Writing about O’Neal, he offered the aside, “Note to Shaq: My flopping had nothing to do with being gay.” He talked about being pretty good at fouling. Which he was.
And he wrote about how he wore the number 98 as a tribute to Matthew Shepherd, the Wyoming teen who was killed, tied to a fence like a scarecrow and tortured, in 1998 for being gay. What a beautiful tribute by a professional athlete. What a beautiful thing. And Collins could never tell a soul.
That is why Monday was such a proud day for professional sports. People across the NBA tweeted-support—Kobe-Bryant, Dwyane Wade, Pau Gasol, Steve Nash, Jason Kidd, Baron Davis, Manu Ginobili, Magic Johnson, on and on — along with Bill Clinton, Michelle Obama, Martina Navratilova, Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson, athletes from other sports, celebrities, people. So many people. The Red Sox, the last team in baseball to integrate, offered to have Collins throw out a first pitch sometime. Things change.
The common theme, other than love and support and courage and pride, was this: Be who you are. There has always been the assumption that professional sports was this inherently homophobic place, partly because it’s one of the last places in society where homosexuality is rarely a topic.
But sports was ready for this. Sports can handle this. There was the other side, too, though it was smaller and dissonant. It was the ignorance or hatred that will wither away, that won’t matter. This was a chance to be on the right or wrong side of history, and some people dutifully obliged.
That’s not what matters, because that will erode and rust away. The admiration, the love — that was so much stronger. Wade Davis, the former NFL player who came out after his playing career was over, said that to come out you need to love yourself enough to let the world see you. Jason Collins was the first active athlete on this frontier to do that, and that took courage. There will be others, at their own pace, in their own time.
In five years we’re going to be so far from here; in 20 this will feel like it happened at the dim edge of a long-ago horizon. This is moving in one direction. Athletes have come out in other sports, at the pro and college level, in North America and overseas. But this was a barrier, and it isn’t anymore. Collins isn’t the end point of history. He’s a beginning.
Collins isn’t a great player, never was. He played 54 minutes last year. But this is a start, a step, a leap. For the first time in 12 years as a professional athlete, for the first time in the 34 years of his life, Jason Collins was able to stand up in front of everybody and be the man that he is, the person that he is. This is the first time he got to be Jason Collins, really. First time he got to be free.
And somewhere out there a kid will look at him and felt a little less different. Somewhere in professional sports an athlete probably looked at him and saw himself. A start, a step, a leap. I hope Jason Collins plays next season, and he takes the court wearing No. 98. Because finally we’ll know who he is, and what that means.