Photo Credit: Joe Klamar/AFP
History was made yesterday when the Brooklyn Nets signed center Jason Collins, an openly gay man, to a ten day contract. He became the first openly gay man in the NBA. In his debut against the Los Angeles Lakers, Collins did not score and only had two rebounds. Brooklyn did get the won over a struggling Los Angeles team, however.
He checked in during the second quarter to a very nice round of applause at the Staples Center. After the game, he said, “The most important thing is, the team got the win. I don’t care about scoring, I care about my team winning, helping my teammates get open, and making their job easier.”
His teammate, point guard Deron Williams showed his support for Collins saying, “He was huge for us tonight. He made some big plays on defense, I thought he played great defense on Pau. He’s a heck of a screener. I played with his brother and they play similar. He’s a heck of a screener and he gets you open. He was instrumental in this win tonight.”
While Collins wore number 46 last night, he will wear number 98 for the rest of the season. The number represents the year (1998) Matthew Shepard, a University of Wyoming student, was brutally murdered for being gay.
While this is a great step in the right direction for acceptance in sports and culture in general, Collins is not the answer to all of the Nets problems. Brooklyn still has a lot of problems, including the decreased production from Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett. However, good for you Jason Collins and all of his teammates for trying to show others acceptance and tolerance.
