OT: Jason Collins

[moytoy12]

Regardless of your personal opinions, I think this is a well-written piece.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/magazine/news/20130429/jason-collins-gay-nba-player/

[Bobby Metzinger]

Thanks for sharing this, moy. Good read. I always thought Bison Dele would have been the first and that his disappearing had something to do about it.

[Billiken Rich]

Yep they're everywhere! You work with them. You shower with them at the gym. Thery're in every sport, state, city, street, and most families in America.

Fortunately the need to be closeted is slowly coming to an end and though many gays seem to hold marriage in the same low esteem as their straight conterparts the right to marry is becoming an option.

I've often thought it would be an interesting social phenomenon to see how gay couples react to the availability of marriage. It's easy to say "I would but I can't......"

[jbizzle09]

Both well-written and moving.

[Box and Won]

I hope this doesn't end his career. If he could play for another year or two, it may encourage others to follow his example.

[Pistol]

I hope this doesn't end his career. If he could play for another year or two, it may encourage others to follow his example.

It'd be great to see him land somewhere next season. Being a 34-year-old free agent, he clearly has a lot of uncertainty ahead career-wise. That position probably made the timing for the announcement easier, given that he didn't have to talk to any organization first. The optimist in me says his coming out won't keep teams from signing him and that it will only be a matter of whether he still has enough to offer. He fully admits he's not a star and more of a "teammate's teammate" in terms of doing the garbage work, but the last time he averaged 2 PPG was 2007-2008 and the last time he averaged 2 RPG was 2010-2011.

Hell, someone might be wise to sign him just because there are about 1 million Jason Collins jerseys about to be ordered. His salary won't be too high and they'll more than make up for it in merchandise sales.

Great article, by the way. And the response I've seen on Twitter and elsewhere has been incredibly positive. Incredibly good sign for all the closeted players out there in this and other leagues. I think if a team wants him next season, there won't be enough opposition to make signing him an issue.

[davidnark]

Glad to see he had the courage do go public. It seems like we are getting closer to it being the non-issue that it is and should be.

[kshoe]

Glad to see he had the courage do go public. It seems like we are getting closer to it being the non-issue that it is and should be.

It's pretty sad that in a society where you can go watch "42" and think about how different things were 66 years ago, its just now that someone feels comfortable enough to speak the truth about his sexual preferences. Long overdue.