Jason Collins, the NBA center who changed American sports history in April 2013 by becoming the first active male athlete in any of the four major professional sports leagues to publicly come out as gay, died on Tuesday May 12, 2026, at his Los Angeles home. He was 47.
His family announced his death through the NBA. He died peacefully, surrounded by family, after an eight-month battle with Stage 4 glioblastoma, one of the most aggressive forms of brain cancer known to medicine.
He is survived by his husband Brunson Greene, whom he married in Austin, Texas in August 2025, just three months before the symptoms of the disease that would take his life began to appear; his parents, Portia and Paul Collins, and his twin brother Jarron Collins, who also played professionally in the NBA and who accepted an award on Jason’s behalf just last week when Collins was too ill to attend.
“We are heartbroken to share that Jason Collins, our beloved husband, son, brother and uncle, has died after a valiant fight with glioblastoma,” his family said in the NBA statement. “Jason changed lives in unexpected ways and was an inspiration to all who knew him and to those who admired him from afar. 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.”
The Moment That Changed Sports
On April 29, 2013, Sports Illustrated published a first-person essay. The author was a 34-year-old NBA center who had played twelve professional seasons for eight different teams, a journeyman big man whose career was winding toward its end, known for toughness and defense and the specific usefulness of a veteran physical presence who understood his role.
The essay opened with three sentences. “I’m a 34-year-old NBA center. I’m black. And I’m gay.”
Those three sentences were the first time any active male athlete in the National Football League, Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association or the National Hockey League had publicly said what Collins said in Sports Illustrated.
There had been retirements followed by revelations. There had been former players. There had not been a current player, in any of the four leagues, who had publicly come out while still under contract and still competing.
Collins said he had been considering the decision since 2011. He chose Sports Illustrated.
He wrote about what it had cost him to keep the secret and why he decided to stop keeping it. “I’ve been an NBA player for 12 years. The time has come for me to set this record straight,” he wrote.
President Barack Obama called him personally after the essay was published. The First Lady tweeted her support.
The response across sports was one of the more visible cultural moments of that year, some supportive, some not, but all of it a direct consequence of one man deciding that the silence was no longer worth its cost.
Collins signed with the Brooklyn Nets in February 2014 and played, appearing in a game on February 23, 2014 against the Los Angeles Lakers.
That game made the history that the essay had announced. He was the first openly gay player to participate in an NBA game.
He played that season and retired. He spent the following decade as the NBA’s global ambassador, speaking publicly about inclusion and representation in sports in ways that the essay had made him uniquely positioned to do.
HRC President Kelley Robinson described what Collins had accomplished in specific terms. “He came out as gay, while still playing, at a time when men’s athletes simply did not do that. But as he powerfully demonstrated in his final years in the league and his post-NBA career, stepping forward as he did boldly changed the conversation.”
Collins’ Career As A Player
Jason Collins was born on December 2, 1978, in Los Angeles, California, the son of Portia and Paul Collins.
He grew up alongside his twin brother Jarron, both of them developing as basketball players, both of them eventually playing at Stanford University, both of them eventually reaching the NBA.
The Collins twins at Stanford were a well-known pairing, and both were drafted in 2001, Jason 18th overall by the New Jersey Nets, Jarron 53rd overall by the Utah Jazz.
Collins spent most of his professional career as a backup center, a role player whose value was in defending, rebounding and providing a physical presence that starting centers preferred not to have to absorb on their own. He was not a scorer.
His career averages of 3.6 points and 3.7 rebounds across 13 NBA seasons are the numbers of someone who understood exactly what his job was and did it without requiring the ball in his hands to do it.
He played the bulk of his career in New Jersey and Brooklyn, eight seasons in the Nets organization across two stints, with stops at the Memphis Grizzlies, Minnesota Timberwolves, Atlanta Hawks, Washington Wizards, Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Lakers, Sacramento Kings and Phoenix Suns filling in the gaps.
By the time he published the Sports Illustrated essay, his career was winding down. The essay did not end it.
He played one more season with the Nets. He retired as the first, and for a significant period the only, openly gay active player in major American professional sports.
The Brooklyn Nets described his legacy in their statement on Tuesday. In his eight seasons with the organization, Collins had helped “define an era of our franchise,” the team said. “He was a constant in our locker room, selfless, tough, and deeply respected by teammates, coaches, and staff alike. Those who were around Jason every day knew him not just as a competitor, but as a genuinely kind, thoughtful person who brought people together. His impact extended far beyond the court, and his courage and authenticity helped move the game, and the world, forward.”
Jason Kidd, who coached the Nets and who shared a locker room with Collins at the start of his own coaching career, was direct about what the experience meant. “Jason Collins was a pioneer. He had courage like you’ve never seen. He was an incredible teammate. And having him in Brooklyn at the start of my coaching journey meant so much. Those who knew him were blessed to call him a friend. You are already missed.”
The Last Chapter
Three months after marrying Brunson Greene in Austin, Texas in August 2025, Collins noticed something was wrong.
He was packing for a trip to the U.S. Open when he could not focus in ways he had always been able to focus. Within hours, his mental clarity, short-term memory and comprehension had deteriorated dramatically.
The CT scans that followed confirmed Stage 4 glioblastoma, a diagnosis he described in a first-person story for ESPN published in December 2025. “Imagine a monster with tentacles spreading across the underside of my brain the width of a baseball,” he wrote.
The description was characteristically precise. Collins had always been a student of the game and of his own situation, someone who prepared, researched and approached challenges with the systematic thinking of an athlete who had spent thirteen years in professional basketball learning how to face things he could not fully control.
“I started researching glioblastoma and all of my options. I wanted to know everything about what I was facing,” he wrote. “As an athlete you learn not to panic in moments like this. These are the cards I’ve been dealt. To me it’s like, ‘Shut up and go play against Shaq.’ You want the challenge? This is the challenge. And there is no bigger challenge in basketball than going up against prime Shaquille O’Neal, and I’ve done that.”
He traveled to Singapore to receive experimental treatments not yet authorized in the United States.
Those treatments were effective enough to bring him back, he returned home, attended NBA All-Star Weekend events in Los Angeles and went to a game at Stanford.
The cancer returned. He died on Tuesday at his Los Angeles home, surrounded by his family.
Last week, before his death, Collins received the inaugural Bill Walton Global Champion Award at the Green Sports Alliance Summit. He was too ill to attend.
His twin brother Jarron accepted the award on his behalf, standing at the podium and saying, “I told my brother this before I came here. He’s the bravest, strongest man I’ve ever known.”
What Did Adam Sliver Say About It?
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver did not limit his statement to condolences.
He said directly what Collins had done. “Jason Collins changed the world, not just the world of sports. His courage in coming out as the first openly gay player in our league’s history will forever be a part of our story.”
Collins died on the same day the NBA announced the death of Memphis Grizzlies forward Brandon Clarke at age 29.
The San Antonio Spurs held a moment of silence before a playoff game Tuesday, honoring both men. Two NBA players. Two different stories. Two losses the same afternoon.
Collins was 47. He had lived openly, publicly, as exactly who he was for the last twelve years of his life, longer than the thirteen seasons of his playing career.
He came out, changed the conversation, served as a global ambassador for a decade, married the person he loved in August 2025 and died fighting glioblastoma eight months later.
He did what men’s athletes simply did not do. Then he kept doing it.
