Collins, first openly gay NBA player, dies aged 47
"Jason Collins' impact and influence extended far beyond basketball as he helped make the NBA, WNBA and larger sports community more inclusive and welcoming for future generations," NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said on Tuesday. "Jason will be remembered not only for breaking barriers, but also for the kindness and humanity that defined his life and touched so many others," Silver added. Collins said in December 2025 that the cancer was discovered after he was struggling to focus.
The brain tumour, he said, was like "a monster with tentacles spreading across the underside of my brain the width of a baseball". Without treatment, he would be dead within three months, doctors told Collins. When revealing his diagnosis to the world, he said it reminded him of his decision to publicly come out as gay in 2013 in a front-page cover story for Sports Illustrated.
The years since were "the best of my life", he said. "Your life is so much better when you just show up as your true self, unafraid to be your true self, in public or private. This is me.
This is what I'm dealing with. " Collins was being treated with a drug called Avastin to slow the tumour's growth, and had been travelling to Singapore for a targeted form of chemotherapy. The California native started his career in college, playing for Stanford University before going to the NBA.
He played for six teams in his 13 seasons in the league, starting with the New Jersey Nets. He had previously been featured on Time Magazine's 100 most influential people list. He retired in 2014.