Jason Collins, first openly gay NBA player, dies after fighting cancer
Jason Collins, the first openly gay player in NBA history, has died at 47 after a battle with Stage 4 glioblastoma. His family said he died after a valiant fight.
Jason Collins may have been known as a basketball player, but the 13-year NBA veteran is being remembered for so much more than that. Wednesday night, he was honored posthumously with the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage at the ESPYS in New York, recognized not for his play on the court, but for the barrier he broke and the courage he showed off of it.
In 2013, Collins became the first active player in one of the four major North American men’s professional sports leagues to come out as gay. Just as he was open with his sexuality, Collins was open with his battle with cancer.
Collins died on May 12, 2026 at 47, of brain cancer. He had gone public with the diagnosis, Stage 4 glioblastoma, in the months before, and spoke openly about the prognosis in hope it would help others.
His twin brother, Jarron, a former NBA player, accepted the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage on his behalf.
“I wish he was here standing to accept this award, but I find myself honored to he here and accept this award on his behalf,” Jarron said.
He told the room he had spent the last months of Jason’s life telling him he was the bravest, strongest man he had ever known. “I’ve never been more proud of Jason than in this moment right now,” Jarron said.
On April 29, 2013, Jason Collins came out as gay in a first-person cover story for Sports Illustrated.
“I’m a 34-year-old NBA center. I’m Black. And I’m gay,” he wrote.
He was a free agent then, and he went unsigned for most of the next year. The Brooklyn Nets signed him on Feb. 23, 2014. He played that night against the Lakers in Los Angeles and became the first openly gay man to appear in a game in the NBA, NFL, MLB or NHL.
He wore No. 98 for Brooklyn. The number was for Matthew Shepard, the gay University of Wyoming student who was beaten and left to die in 1998.
Collins spent 13 seasons in the NBA as a center, a role player known for hard screens and for guarding the biggest men in the game. He played for six franchises: the Nets in New Jersey and later in Brooklyn, the Grizzlies, the Timberwolves, the Hawks, the Celtics and the Wizards. He reached the NBA Finals twice, with the New Jersey Nets in 2002 and 2003.
Collins played at Stanford before the NBA. He retired from basketball in November 2014, a year after he came out.
The Arthur Ashe Award for Courage is given each year at the ESPYS to a figure in sports whose impact reaches beyond it. It is named for the tennis champion and activist who died in 1993.
