Jason Collins, former basketball player, has died at the age of 47 of glioblastoma, a type of brain cancer. He announced publicly that he was receiving treatment for brain tumour in September 2025.
Collins, 18th overall in the 2001 draft, played for 13 seasons in the NBA, between 2001 and 2014, for teams like New Jersey Nets (now Brooklyn Nets), where he helped them reach two finals in 2002 and 2003 alongside teammates Jason Kidd and Richard Jefferson., Memphis Grizzlies, Minnesota Timberwolves, Atlanta Hawks, Boston Celtics, and Washington Wizards, averaging 3.6 point, 3.7 rebounds and 0.9 assists per game.
Collins became well known for becoming the first openly gay NBA player, coming out in a May 2013 issue of Sports Illustrated, also becoming the first active male athlete from one of the four major North American professional team leagues to publicly do so. Also an activist for gay rights, he chose 98 as his jersey number because of the murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay student beat to death in 1998.
"Jason changed lives in unexpected ways and was an inspiration to all who knew him and to those who admired him from afar" his family said. "Our family will miss him dearly." And his former agent and now vice chairman of the Detroit Pistons, Arn Tellem, said that Collins changed lives, left this world better than he found it and that his legacy "stands as a beacon for tolerance, dignity, respect, inclusion, compassion, and understanding".