I’m a 34-year-old NBA center. I’m black. And I’m gay.
I didn’t set out to be the first openly gay athlete playing in a major American team sport. But since I am, I’m happy to start the conversation. I wish I wasn’t the kid in the classroom raising his hand and saying, “I’m different.” If I had my way, someone else would have already done this. Nobody has, which is why I’m raising my hand.
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shortstop
This is fantastic, but we shouldn’t forget Glenn Burke. Then again, he was out to his teammates and owners, but didn’t make a public acknowledgment until he was out of the majors.
RaflW
Booya to Jason!
Elizabelle
DougJ: you’ve got an extra “s” in blogpost title.
And glad to hear of Jason Collins’ courage and honesty.
DougJ
@Elizabelle:
Thanks, I fixed it.
Yutsano
Minor pedant: only one has come out so far. But a waterfall starts as a single drop of water…
@shortstop: John (I’m gomma butcher his last name) Amaechi wasn’t public but told a few of his teammates as well. But he got dismissed because he’s a Brit, or something.
smintheus
Isn’t strange that in 2013 this is remarkable in any way?
scav
yep. Best to Jason Collins and hoping basketball keeps it together and shows how its done (giant nothing).
shortstop
@Yutsano: Let the flood commence!
Ed in NJ
He’s a free agent. The real progress will begin when a team signs him for next season. I hope it happens.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@smintheus: You mean with people still getting fired and still getting hurt, and elected officials still wanting to kill gays for going against the bible? Yeah, it’s still remarkable.
Villago Delenda Est
Good for Jason Collins. This is a gutsy thing to do. His statement only underlines and punctuates how gutsy it is.
smintheus
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): I said “isn’t it strange…”, not “is it remarkable…”.
Cassidy
@Ed in NJ: He will. His numbers back him up. See Dennis Rodman.
Felinious Wench
Proud, proud. And Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash, and David Stern have all sent tweets or made statements of support. Looking forward to reading more.
MomSense
Wooo Hooo to Mr. Collins!
Bubblegum Tate
Big ups to Jason Collins. I’m sure that, having endured the abuse the opposing team’s fans have dished out for so many years, he’s prepared to deal with the squeals of hatred about to come at him from the wingnuts.
jibeaux
Well, also, there are women, but yes, very proud of Jason.
Stoned Stats
Who?
fuzz
@Cassidy:
Plus he’s a decent big man. It’s not like he’s a 6’2 2 guard, he plays a position where there’s always a demand, even if you just come off the bench and foul people.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@smintheus: Yep, I got the emphasis wrong. Sorry. At the same time, it will always be strange for the “first.” Obama’s still the first black president, and lots of people are still weirded (to put it kindly) out about that.
Zifnab
’bout flipping time. I’m continuously surprised that we haven’t seen more pro athletes come out, one way or another.
Anya
Good for Jason Collins. I am so glad he doesn’t have to endure anymore the mental exhaustion that comes with hiding who you are. I am so glad he comes from a good family that supports him.
Hoodie
Glad to see it happen, and Collins is a good trailblazer. You don’t last 12 years in the NBA as a role player if the other players don’t respect you. No telling whether other players specifically suspected he was gay, but a few players and ex-players (Charles Barkley, Steve Nash) have made a point of trying the prepare the ground for someone coming out.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): OK. I’m not making statements very well today.
I should add that I would like for people to not find it strange, but that will never happen. Never. Imagine Spock taking off his sweatband and stating “I am Vulcan and proud.”
quannlace
Guess Jesus is turning his back on sports. On the news they said Tebow’s contract wasn’t gonna be renewed.
burnspbesq
Interesting that it’s Jason Collins coming out. He had a pretty untypical upbringing for an African-American NBA player: stable, two-educated-parent household, elite prep school (Harvard-Westlake), Stanford.
When someone with the background of, say, Stephon Marbury feels comfortable coming out, then we’ll know that we’ve made real progress.
jon
I don’t look forward to the haters saying Jason Collins’ twin brother has to be gay, too. “Otherwise,” they’ll argue, “being gay is a choice.” (I don’t know if they’re fraternal or identical twins, but I bet the haters don’t know and don’t care.)
The haters can’t get their minds to accept the concept that it doesn’t matter to most mature people whether it’s a choice or natural or even just a whim on a lonely Tuesday afternoon. Love is love, and shut up, that’s why.
Suzanne
@burnspbesq: Stephon Marbury has come out as BATSHIT crazy. That should count for something.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@burnspbesq: Yeah, cause you know, being the first player to come out as gay, as a minority, is just nothing.
When we get an African American president who wasn’t born to a white woman, then we’ll know we made progress.
ETA: Hope you’re just missing the sarcasm tag.
SatanicPanic
@burnspbesq: Why move the goalposts? It’s still news.
lamh35
i dont know this dudes stats, but still knowing it may affect his free agent status, & still coming out now rather than after he stopped playing is more courageous, IMHO
scav
@SatanicPanic: news and movement is never good or forward enough. vale of constant disappointment, etc. Eta. seconding also hope for awol tag.
Villago Delenda Est
@quannlace:
Jesus is cool with people like Collins. However Jeebus, the Son of Mammon, who the fundigelicals actually worship, is not available for comment at this time.
shortstop
Not to change the subject (except from Burns’ latest inept Eeyoring), but today is the 30th anniversary of Lee Elia’s famous rant. My DOG, but that was a spectacular customer service fail. You have to admire the brass it takes to call your fans losers and bums for being at the ballpark on a weekday to watch your guys play.
Joel
@Yutsano: Amaechi was retired for years when he came out publicly.
Arclite
It helps that he lives in that liberal bastion, the great state of MA.
liberal
@jon:
Agreed, but it’s an interesting scientific issue. Though right-wingers are too stupid to understand that something could be very innate and yet there might not be 100% correlation between MZ twins. (Even autism isn’t.)
Joel
@Cassidy: Collins’ numbers are terrible. He’s about as far from Dennis Rodman as you get, at least in the rebounding department. He may not get signed, but that’s because he’s not very talented and is about to turn 35.
However, he’s a decent help defender and there’s always a coach somewhere who lurves them some players who do all the little things even if they are no good at the big ones.
Chris
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
I heard about this from a Republican who thinks she’s socially liberal and is actually just apathetic on this issue whining that she doesn’t understand what the big to-do is because “it shouldn’t matter.”
Reminded me of that “I don’t see your skin color!” statement from a couple weeks back. I just love all these professionally tolerant people who’re all about how open-minded and [whatever the version of “color blind” is for sexuality] they are now that gay people are actually starting to get ahead in society, but couldn’t be arsed to lift a finger back when they were getting stomped on.
D.N. Nation
@Joel: Collins is useful in that he can come in, give 6 fouls against a dominant big man, take a couple charges, and set a couple screens. Back when he was playing for my team (the, ugh, Hawks), he frustrated Dwight Howard enough that the Hawks were able to advance to the next round. Was probably the highlight of the Joe Johnson Era.
Not a great player, or even a good one, but a useful one at least.
Though your point about someone signing him still stands. I didn’t even realize he was still in the NBA.
MattR
@burnspbesq:
But someone from Marbury’s background was almost certainly never going to be the first. Having a strong family supporting him was almost a prerequisite for being the first player to come out.
@Joel: Agree with that analysis. He
iswould have been a pretty borderline candidate to be signed. However, I also think there will be some owner or coach who wants to prove the league can handle a gay player and will give him a shot.SatanicPanic
@scav: I for one won’t be happy until the whole 1992 Dream Team unretires and comes out. Also too, Tom Brady and both the Manning Brothers. And someone from NASCAR, but not Danica Patrick, because that wouldn’t count either.
Cassidy
@Joel: Oh no, I wasn’t comparing him to Dennis Rodman except that being odd, different, ecentric, etc. won’t keep you from being signed if you’ve got some skill. That aside, he does a job and fills a role. There is always a place for an aggressive big man to come off the bench.
Spaghetti Lee
@SatanicPanic:
Tom Brady coming out would be hilarious. “All those hot blonde supermodels…all for nothing!”
Cassidy
@SatanicPanic:
Now that’s a Godaddy commercial I would watch.
handsmile
@Suzanne:
[Pardon, this is O/T, but by the time I read DougJ’s “Honky Grandma” thread this morning, it had long unspooled.)
Regarding your mother’s illness and the difficulties experienced by you and your family in selflessly caring for her, I’d encourage you to consider contacting NAMI-Arizona. The National Alliance on Mental Illness has been established to assist “individuals and families whose lives are affected by mental illness” through a comprehensive variety of services and programs. This main link summarizes those activities and provides sub-links to local Arizona chapters:
http://www.namiaz.com/
It’s a superb (compassionate/knowledgeable/effective) organization for whose NYC chapter mrs. handsmile, a clinical psychologist, and I have volunteered for a number of years.
Mr Stagger Lee
I’ve seem to recall a front office guy in the NBA who came out so it is happening, he flood gates opening. A long way from the time when Tim Hardaway put his foot in his mouth about saying he would refuse to play with an gay athlete. There was a blogger who passed away years ago(His name was Steve, I forgot his last name)who wrote a stinging rebuke to people like Charles Barkley who would make PC statements, arguing that Hardaway’s attitude was more prevelent, of course that was years ago.
The Dangerman
@MattR:
I don’t think the Lakers could be more of a circus (note, I’m not saying a gay player should be a circus) so maybe that is the best spot. Dwight Howard, Metta World Peace, Steve Nash (who has literally stolen Laker money instead of retiring); the circus is definitely in town.
scav
@SatanicPanic: I’m holding out for the gipper in football, again am solidly in line for a NASCAR coming out, absolutely. Large magnums of Champagne shaken and popped for that one, no?
Mr Stagger Lee
Of course it didn’t stop Chris Culliver of the San Francisco 49ers(of all the teams) from making an ass of himself in the Super Bowl, with his homophobic remarks.
shortstop
@scav: If former sports figures count, how about Jim Bunning, Curt Schilling, Jack Kemp, JC Watts, Tom Osborne and Jim Ryun?
scav
@shortstop: Everyone?
“It would be irresponsible not to speculate!”
shortstop
@scav: I think it would send a powerful message.
ETA: That was supposed to be funny.
SatanicPanic
@scav: That would strike right in the heart of the heartland because we all know that NASCAR is the most American of sports.
Suzanne
@handsmile: Thank you—I will definitely check it out. We need some help, big time.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
@Mr Stagger Lee:
That would be the late, great Steve Gilliard. I’ve only found two posts at his old blog that mention Sir Charles but then I don’t entirely trust the saerch function at blogspot.
Mr Stagger Lee
@scav: If it was Jeff Gordon half NASCAR would say “”figures” but if it was Junior or say Tony Stewart heads would explode! I remember Phil Hendrie doing an joke interview” with a representative from the NASCAR LGBT Outreach program on how they were going to get more NASCAR fans from the Gay community, and the howling from the NASCAR fans was funny
JWL
I’m pretty sure an NFL player came out during the 1970’s. But for the life of me, I can’t recall his name (although for some reason I seem to recall he was a linebacker).
Napoleon
Nate Silver weighs in
http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/29/jason-collins-breaks-a-barrier-but-will-he-find-another-n-b-a-job/
Ed in NJ
@Joel:
That’s my point. Jason Collins is just mediocre enough that teams could shy away from signing him, citing his age and declining skills, when it could just as easily be a way to avoid the inevitable sideshow that will follow his signing.
Who will be the Branch Rickey?
gene108
@jibeaux:
Not a big deal if they come out gay.
As we all know playing sports turns women folk into lesbians, it’s a miracle there are any straight chicks left, with all the girls these days playing soccer, softball, etc. /snark
JWL
Amazing tool, is Google: Turns out the guy was a running back, not a linebacker:
“David Marquette Kopay (born June 28, 1942) is a former American football running back in the National Football League who in 1975 became one of the first professional athletes to come out as gay..”.
Jamey
@Arclite: Boston hoops fans are a different breed. They were merciless toward Bill Russell–Bill Russell!–even though he gave them 11 banners in 13 seasons.
Auerbach, as progressive an exec as one could wish for, picked Larry Bird a year before he could play because Bird was an incredible talent, but he was also white. (Auerbach also took great pains to make Russell the best-paid baller, AND the first black player-coach). Boston fans like that sort of thing …
Anonymous
@Jamey:
You ain’t kidding. I remember the Bill Russell Sportscentury episode (unfortunately, it’s no longer on Youtube) — there was a 7-8 minute block of just anecdote after anecdote of the racist bullshit Russ had to go through from Boston fans. Among them: a town in Boston through a party for Russell. Russell went to buy a house there and they started circling petitions. Tom Heinsohn overheard Boston sportswriters conspire to vote the white Jerry Lucas to be the MVP of an all-star game by virtue of the fact that Lucas was white.
Vince
@Jamey: I’m not understanding what Larry Bird has to do with anything.
Origuy
Kopay retired in 1972 and came out in 1975. Collins intends to keep playing.
Vickie Feminist
I remember Kopay coming out and believe me nobody in football cheered him on. Nor was he treated as a heroic risktaker by the sports media.
gene108
@Vince:
Boston – historically speaking – hasn’t been a bastion of racial tolerance, even into the 1980’s, when Larry Bird was playing.
In 1975, they had riots when they had to integrate the schools that were just as or more ugly than anything from 1957 Little Rock, eighteen years earlier.
Maybe things have changed in Boston.
In short, just because someone lives in MA, doesn’t mean they live in a tolerant society.
A.J.
So, in summation….Who cares?
How many points did your score?
How many shots did you block?
What is your percentage from the foul line?
What is your percentage from 3-point range?
Are you good in the transition?
Are you a team player?
Do you keep guns OUT of the team locker room? (‘Ya gotta ask.)
Anything other than that just gets in the way of a great game.
Ol Froth
@shortstop: That’s not Burke’s fault, its the fault of the media that ignored the fact that an openly gay man was playing Major League Baseball. Todays announcement says more about the changing attitudes of jock-sniffing sports “writers” than it does about the attitudes of athletes.
JWL
@Vickie Feminist:
I’m a native San Franciscan, and well recall the shock of Harvey Milk being Harvey, yet (shock of shocks) nonetheless gaining political power. Unlike, say, the interned Japanese or Jackie Robinson, there was no pigmentation involved in the equation. Insofar as San Franciscans wised up earlier than most of the country, it’s only because it’s a really small town, and Milk was a very good man. But it still took quite a while for those who had theretofore lived in darkness to see the light.
Another Halocene Human
@gene108: We also had a voluntary busing program. The bad stuff is out there, believe me I saw it as a kid growing up, the deliberate disinvestment, the segregation, but there are also a lot of younger people in decision making positions now who think that was wrong.
I think just like in the Emperor’s New Clothes young people see the hypocrisy of blaming Southerners for doing the same damn thing you’re doing in South Boston, or East Boston, or Dedham, or Waltham.
I also had old school liberals for teachers who ranted about the injustices of “urban renewal” that razed middle class black neighborhoods (oh, and they took out the Jewish neighborhood, also, too, West Boston where Leonard Nimoy grew up). The power structure is no longer absolutely aligned against integration, investment, community partnership and that is a BIG change.
Vince
@gene108: Agreed about everything you said about Boston, still doesn’t explain the Larry Bird comment.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Vince: One of the reasons Auerbach made a special effort to get Bird is that he knew his fanbase would be a lot more enthusiastic for a team built around a white basketball star than an equally talented black basketball star.
It’s about the fans, not Auerbach or Bird.
Vince
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: So Auerbach, a man who made Bill Russell the coach of the team back in the 60’s, went out of his way to draft a white player that he normally wouldn’t have to appease racist fans? And he just got lucky that Bird ended up being one of the greatest players of all time? Do you have any citations for that?
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Vince: Me? I was restating the earlier statement and, largely, seeing if you were trolling or just having trouble with reading comprehension.
You obviously missed these points in the very short earlier message: “Auerbach, as progressive an exec as one could wish for” and “because Bird was an incredible talent, but he was also white” and “Boston fans like that sort of thing”.
I kind of thought that last one was the entire point of bringing Bird up.
dman
Fat fuck speaks on the issue
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2013/04/29/pro_sports_2013_media_rejoices_over_tebow_release_gay_nba_player_comes_out_geno_smith_pays_the_black_tax