Jason Collins, who played on the New Jersey Nets from 2001-2008 and later joined the Brooklyn Nets, becoming the first openly gay male athlete in one of the four major professional sports, is likely to retire from basketball, moving into the next stage of his life as an ambassador for the LGBT community.
That gives him a rare distinction among retiring NBA players: he’s better suited for his next job than his last one.
From Marcus Thompson II of Inside Bay Area, who attended the Inforum Convention in San Francisco, where Collins spoke to roughly 600 people:
“I used to be able to jump and touch the top of the white square behind the rim with ease,” Collins, 35, told the crowd of nearly 600 Monday night at San Francisco’s Castro Theatre for the Commonwealth Club’s latest Inforum conversation.
“As the years go by, you watch your hand go lower and lower on that square. Father Time is undefeated against us all. … I’m really grateful for my Stanford degree now. On the other hand, I can still dunk.”
We have proof of this.
At 35, Collins scored 25 points in 22 games with the Nets last season, and didn’t play a minute in the playoffs. We expected him to retire after his brief moment making history.
He hasn’t officially announced his retirement, but it seems like he’s got other things on his mind than sitting on the end of an NBA bench. Can you blame him?
Inside Bay Area — Thompson: Jason Collins finds his next team