Jason Collins, the retired NBA center who made history as the league's first openly gay player, has died at age 47 after a short fight with stage 4 glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer, his family announced Tuesday. The man who once declared "I'm a 34-year-old NBA center. I'm black. And I'm gay" in a landmark 2013 Sports Illustrated essay has now left the court for good.
"Jason changed lives in unexpected ways and was an inspiration to all who knew him and to those who admired him from afar," Collins' family said in a statement released through the NBA. "We are grateful for the outpouring of love and prayers over the past eight months and for the exceptional medical care Jason received from his doctors and nurses. Our family will miss him dearly."
Collins, who came out in 2013 while still actively playing, had been under treatment for a brain tumor. The average prognosis for glioblastoma with radiation and chemotherapy is about 11 to 14 months, he noted in an ESPN essay last year. In that piece, he revealed he had traveled to Singapore for experimental treatments not yet available in the US - because when you're facing a grim timeline, you might as well try the stuff that could become tomorrow's standard of care.
"As an athlete you learn not to panic in moments like this. These are the cards I've been dealt," he wrote. "If that's all the time I have left, I'd rather spend it trying a course of treatment that might one day be a new standard of care for everyone."
He drew parallels between sharing his cancer battle and coming out as gay. "Your life is so much better when you just show up as your true self … this is me. this is what I'm dealing with," Collins wrote.
At the time of his coming out, there were no openly gay players in the other major American sporting leagues - making Collins a trailblazer with a basketball and a rainbow flag. He played 13 seasons in the NBA, suiting up for teams including the Boston Celtics and New Jersey Nets before retiring in 2014.
Just last week, Collins received the inaugural Bill Walton Global Champion Award at the Green Sports Alliance Summit. Too ill to attend, his twin brother and former NBA player Jarron Collins accepted on his behalf. "I told my brother this before I came here: he's the bravest, strongest man I've ever known," Jarron said. It was a fitting tribute for a man who spent his final years showing the world how to face the ultimate opponent with grace.