1st openly gay NBA player, twin brother of ex-Suns forward, dead at 47
The NBA's first openly gay player, Jason Collins, is dead at 47 years of age. He is the twin brother of former Phoenix Suns player Jarron Collins.
Jason Collins, the NBA's first openly gay player, has died at the age of 47. Collins died of brain cancer, specifically Stage 4 glioblastoma, one of the deadliest forms of brain cancer, and Collins said in November 2025 that "it came on incredibly fast. " Per ESPN's Ramona Shelburne , Collins had gone to Singapore in the wintertime to receive experimental treatments that were not yet authorized in the United States.
The treatment was proficient enough that Collins did head home and even attended NBA All-Star weekend events in Los Angeles. Collins also went to a basketball game at Stanford, where he was an All-Pac 12 player in the 2000-01 season. He was the No.
18 overall pick out of Stanford in the 2001 NBA Draft. The cancer did return, however, and he died in Los Angeles at his home with family around him. Collins is the twin brother of former Phoenix Suns forward Jarron Collins, who played for the Suns in the 2009-10 season.
Jason Collins played in the NBA for 13 years, and played in the NBA Finals in back-to-back seasons (2001-02 and 2002-03) for the then-New Jersey Nets. He was a starter for the second of those teams. Jason Collins came out as gay in the offseason after the 2012-13 NBA season, and played one season after that, when he returned to the Nets after being traded from the franchise in 2008.