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Retired NBA center Jason Collins has been diagnosed with a brain tumor and will begin cancer treatment, the league announced in a statement.
'NBA Ambassador and 13-year NBA veteran Jason Collins is currently undergoing treatment for a brain tumor,' read the league statement. '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.'
Collins and his twin brother Jarron played together at Stanford before both joined the NBA in 2001.
Although he remained closeted for much of his career, Jason revealed he was gay in May of 2013 as he languished on the free-agent market.
The following season, his former New Jersey Nets teammate Jason Kidd recruited him to Brooklyn, where Kidd was coaching the newly relocated team.
On February 23, 2014, Collins signed a 10-day contract with the team and in doing so, became the league’s first openly gay player. He’d go on to remain with the Nets for the rest of the season before retiring the following November.
Jason Collins during the NBA/WNBA participation in the New York City Pride Parade in 2024
Collins remained closeted for years as he built a reputation as a defensive-minded center
Collins’ No. 98 jersey quickly became one of the league’s hottest items in 2014.
He later revealed he chose the number to honor Matthew Shepard, the gay college student who was was beaten, tortured, and left to die near Laramie, Wyoming in 1998.
The distressing health update comes after Collins and partner Brunson Green were married back in May.
Green, 57, is a Hollywood movie producer and earned a Best Picture Oscar nomination for the movie 'The Help'. The couple even had one of the stars at their wedding.
Octavia Spencer posted a picture of the happy couple walking down the aisle, captioning it: 'Welcome to the family @jasoncollins_98. You've chosen well, and so has he! Love you, B!'.
