Jason Collins, first openly gay NBA player, dies from cancer at 47, family says

Jason Collins, the NBA's first openly gay player who has served as a global ambassador for the sport for the past decade, has died from brain cancer, his family said Tuesday. He was 47.

Collins told ESPN in November that he'd been diagnosed with stage 4 glioblastoma, one of the deadliest forms of brain cancer. He traveled to Singapore this past winter to receive experimental treatments not yet authorized in the United States. Those treatments were effective enough for him to return home, attend NBA All-Star Weekend events in Los Angeles and a game at his alma mater, Stanford.

But the cancer returned recently, and Collins died peacefully at his home, surrounded by his family.

"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 a statement released by the NBA. "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."

Collins retired in 2014 after a 13-year career that included stops with the New Jersey Nets, Memphis, Minnesota, Atlanta, Boston, Washington and back to the Nets after they moved to Brooklyn. He announced he was gay in a 2013 Sports Illustrated cover story, becoming the first publicly gay athlete to play in any of the four main North American sports leagues.

"When I chose to come out, there was no scandal or anything," Collins told ESPN in November. "This was like, I feel that I am good enough to play in the NBA and by the way, I'm gay. Just so everyone knows cards on the table, this is where I am.

"Thankfully the Nets were the one team that gave me a tryout."

Collins played 22 games for the Nets that season, alongside teammates Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Brook Lopez and Joe Johnson. The head coach of that team was Jason Kidd, whom Collins had played with as teammates on the New Jersey Nets team that made the NBA Finals in 2002-03.

"When I did come out publicly, it was interesting, it was very rare, but I got back-to-back calls from Oprah Winfrey and President Barack Obama," Collins said in that November interview with ESPN. "President Obama said 'Congratulations -- what you've done today will have a positive impact on someone you might not ever meet in your lifetime.'

"I think that's a really cool thing and I want to do that again as far as having an opportunity to help someone that I might not ever meet in my lifetime."

Collins said doctors told him when he was first diagnosed that he'd have between six weeks and three months if he did nothing to treat his particularly aggressive type of brain tumor.

"I started researching glioblastoma and all of my options. I wanted to know everything about what I was facing," Collins wrote in a first person story published by ESPN in December.

"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."

Collins chose a treatment plan that he felt would give him the best quality of life, while also giving him a chance to extend his life beyond the initial prognosis.

Collins was able to complete the initial parts of his treatment plan but the cancer returned too quickly for him to complete all of it. He is survived by his husband, Brunson Green, parents Portia and Paul Collins, and brother, Jarron Collins, who was most recently an assistant coach with the New Orleans Pelicans.