00:00Many, many years ago, Katie Couric had a daytime talk show.
00:04She did.
00:04She was trying to compete with Sally Jesse Raphael and Oprah and Ellen at the time, and
00:12she had me on as a guest.
00:13And I went in there, and Katie Couric sat there, it was me, and a very tall gentleman
00:19sat to my left, who I acknowledged I thought was heroic, and unfortunately, that hero passed
00:27away yesterday.
00:27And while I can't claim to have known him personally or had a friendship with him, I
00:32did that TV show once, so I was friendly with him, but at no point should I ever describe
00:39our relationship as beyond a chance meeting on a TV show.
00:42His name is Jason Collins.
00:44Jason Collins died of a cancer yesterday at the young age of 47.
00:49The reason I bring it up is that Jason Collins, who not only had a 13-year NBA career playing
00:56for the Nets, both in New Jersey and in Brooklyn, playing for the Memphis Grizzlies, the T-Wolves,
01:01the Hawks, the Celtics, and the Washington Wizards, was also the only person that I know of to
01:07this day, if I'm wrong, please correct me, who, while an active player in the NBA, acknowledged
01:13that he was gay.
01:15He did that in 2013 in a Sports Illustrated cover story.
01:19He wound up being signed by the Brooklyn Nets, because when he came out as being gay, he was
01:25a free agent, and the Brooklyn Nets signed him in 2014.
01:29And he became an ambassador for the NBA after his career as well.
01:35He only had that one more year in the NBA that last year, after coming out as being gay,
01:392014 was his last year as an active player.
01:43And I was reading the story that he had passed away from a very aggressive form of brain cancer.
01:48He had stage four glioblastoma.
01:51Yeah, it's the same thing that killed John McCain and many other very aggressive deadly
01:55aggressive, and I don't think there's, the survival rate is like 1%.
01:59Yeah.
01:59So first off, obviously prayers and thoughts go to his family and those that he left behind.
02:04But it dawned on me that in the decade plus since Jason Collins announced, quote unquote,
02:13that he was gay, that I don't think anybody else has.
02:18Not in the NBA.
02:19In the NBA.
02:19Not in the NBA.
02:20And that saddens me, because by just sheer numbers, there are other men who happen to
02:28be homosexual who are playing in the NBA.
02:31Just stats, right?
02:32Just pure statistics.
02:34The math says it has to happen.
02:36That if I give you 1,000 guys in a room, five of them, whatever the number is, are gay.
02:41Absolutely.
02:42And I'm saying by it, because having met Jason, and again, I spent an hour of my life
02:49with him, nothing more.
02:50But I was so moved by his story and his strength and his courage, because in a world dominated
02:56by testosterone, in a world dominated by, I want to show you that I'm the manliest man
03:02here.
03:03That's what men's sports is.
03:04For a guy that was a phenomenal basketball player to shoulder the burden on behalf of
03:10other unouted or unadmitted gay men, I don't think any of us could have ever understood
03:18what that meant to the gay community and the pressures and responsibility that Jason Collins
03:26decided to take with him.
03:28When he came out and announced, I am gay, and that doesn't mean a damn thing to how I play
03:33basketball.
03:33And good for the Brooklyn Nets in signing him, because that was not a popular thing
03:37to do.
03:38And obviously, men in locker rooms, you know, stereotypically, you know, don't want the
03:42gay guy in the shower, don't want a gay guy getting dressed and undressed in front of them,
03:46or seeing you and I.
03:48Yeah.
03:48And it's obviously such a caveman mentality.
03:51And yet, I don't think we appreciate the plight of Jason Collins enough.
03:56I don't think we understand what he went through when he did that courageous move in announcing
04:01his sexuality.
04:02And I've always been disturbed by the fact that straight people don't have to announce
04:06their sexuality, but there's this need in the gay community where you need to announce
04:11to people that men like men, or in the WNBA, there are women who date other women.
04:16Yeah.
04:17And we need to know that.
04:18And I've never quite understood why I need to know if a male athlete's dating another
04:23male athlete, or if a female athlete is dating another female athlete.
04:28Nobody asks me who I'm dating.
04:29I never had to announce that I happen to like women.
04:32Or for the 90% plus of other athletes that date the opposite sex, none of them felt the need
04:38to have to announce it because of the pressure from a community to let people know who they
04:42truly are.
04:43And I didn't want today to go by without being a little bit vulnerable and acknowledging what
04:49I think is bravery.
04:51And hero might not be the right word, heroic might not be the right word, but we should
04:56all take a moment today to be grateful that Jason Collins had the intestinal fortitude and
05:01the strength to acknowledge who he is and who he was.
05:05And unfortunately, no one else has had the same ability to do that since.
05:10And that's sad.
05:11It's sad that it's still an issue, who you decide to date or sleep with.
05:15And I just want to acknowledge the heroism and the greatness of Jason Collins.
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