Nets welcome NBA’s first openly gay player
LOS ANGELES — Jason Collins made history Sunday night, signing a 10-day contract with the Nets and becoming the first openly gay player in any of the four major American professional sports.
But if you listened to both Collins and the Nets, this was strictly about a 35-year-old NBA veteran trying to stick in the league one more time.
“Right now I’m focused on trying to learn the plays, learn the game plan, assignments,” Collins said before the Nets’ 108-102 victory over the Lakers. “I don’t have time to really think about history right now. I just have to focus on my job tonight.”
Of course, history was all anyone else was thinking about after the Nets chose to sign Collins to fill their need for a big man after Glen “Big Baby” Davis agreed to sign with the Clippers when he clears waivers Monday after being bought out by Orlando.
Once Davis informed the Nets of his decision Sunday morning, they moved quickly to sign Collins to a contract in order to have him in uniform in time for Sunday night’s game. Collins’ signing marked another step forward for gays in sports after former Missouri star Michael Sam came out two weeks ago.
“The decision to sign Jason was a basketball decision,” Nets general manager Billy King said in a statement. “We needed to increase our depth inside, and with his experience and size, we felt he was the right choice for a 10-day contract.”
But while Collins tried to make it about basketball, he understood the moment was a lot bigger than the usual veteran 10-day contract, after he publicly came out in an article in Sports Illustrated last spring, then spent the last 10 months working out in the hopes of Sunday finally arriving.
“Life is so much better for me,” Collins said of how his life has changed since making his announcement. “I don’t have to hide who I am.”
Collins entered the game for the first time with 10:28 remaining in the second quarter, receiving a polite round of applause from the Staples Center crowd. He immediately set a bone-crushing screen on Lakers guard Jordan Farmar. He played a little over four minutes, picking up a pair of fouls and grabbing a rebound, before checking back out of the game and returning to the bench. He finished with two rebounds and one steal in 11 minutes.
It was the kind of contribution coach Jason Kidd, who spent 6 ¹/2 years playing alongside Collins with the Nets — including the team’s back-to-back trips to the Finals in 2002 and 2003 — thought his former teammate could bring to the team, and why he was a strong backer of the Nets signing Collins.
“I understand what he brings to the table,” Kidd said. “I played with him.
“Again, we’re not looking for him to score 25 points. I don’t think he has to get a rhythm of shooting the ball. We’re not going to call plays for him. ... He’s a team guy, he cares about the team, and that’s why he’s on board and hopefully he can help us.”
Since the news broke Thursday the Nets might be a landing spot for Collins, every player on the team has said all the right things, lauding Collins — now in his 13th season — for his professionalism and work ethic, and saying the NBA was ready for this to happen.
In addition to his long relationship with Kidd, Collins played previously with Joe Johnson, Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett, while his brother Jarron was teammates with both Deron Williams and Andrei Kirilenko in Utah. Collins said he noticed and appreciated the public support from the Nets in recent days.
“Yeah, I saw a little bit of it,” he said. “It’s great. [This is] a good group of guys here, and again, either my brother or myself has been teammates with a lot of guys in this locker room, so they’re very familiar with what you’re going to get from the Collins twins.”
But for all of the deflecting Collins and the Nets did about the enormity of the moment, when Collins was asked if he had a message for any other gay athletes watching at home he had an immediate response.
“My message to other athletes, period, is just be yourself,” Collins said. “Be your true, authentic self and never be afraid or ashamed or have any fear to be your true authentic self.”
By stepping onto the floor Sunday night, he helped take sports another step in the right direction.