Athlete Jason Collins speaks to students

Jason Collins, the first openly gay athlete in one of the four major American team sports, spoke Wednesday night at Seeley G. Mudd about his experience coming out in the NBA. Afterwards, there was a student-athlete panel discussing LGBT athletes’ experiences in the NCAA.

The event was sponsored by Speakers Committee, Trojan Pride, the Academic Culture Assembly and the Special Events Committee.

Collins played in the NBA for 13 seasons with New Jersey Nets, Memphis Grizzlies, Minnesota Timberwolves, Atlanta Hawks, Boston Celtics, Washington Wizards and Brooklyn Nets. In the 2012-2013 season, Collins announced he was gay. Later in 2014, he retired.

In April of 2014, Collins was on the cover of TIME Magazine’s “100 Most Influential People in the World” issue.

Collin said he got tired of lying to people by saying he was straight.

“Up until 2009 I was even engaged and I called off the wedding a month before we were supposed to get married,” Collins said. “From 2009 until 2013 when I came out, I never dated other women and I just made up a girlfriend. I played for a lot of eastern conference teams and I always said I had this girlfriend who lived in L.A. and never came out [to] visit … I just got tired of telling that lie.”

After much discomfort, Collins said he wanted to let it be known that he was gay.  He explained that his uncle who has been openly gay for close to 30 years, still has to explain his sexuality to some people.

“It’s not like when you come out … that’s it.”

Collins wanted to come out fully uncensored and from his perspective.

“I saw that TMZ had a little article on EJ, Magic Johnson’s son, and I didn’t want that to be me,” Collins said. “I wanted to control my story.

During the discussion, Collins cited his experience with Sports Illustrated, saying that the publication allowed him to tell hsi story from a first-person perspective.

“Most of the time when you’re an athlete or just a regular person you get interviewed [and] it’s always the reporter’s job to shape the story … but this was going to be all my words. I was able to take the conversation, shape my words onto paper and then I was the final editor.”

According to Collins, his teammates and fellow professional athletes were extremely encouraging and caring.

“One of the phone calls that came in … was Deron Williams, point guard for the Brooklyn Nets, and [he] was extremely supportive,” Collins said.  “Also, Jerry Stackhouse, former basketball player that went to North Carolina and was my teammate in Atlanta, just hearing [Jerry’s] response was incredible, because I really respect his opinion. His words were … extremely supportive. The same things from Paul Pierce. The list goes on, [and] Doc Rivers, people who just were extremely supportive.”

Despite people understanding his decision, Collins knew there would be others who wouldn’t agree.

“Later in your career, your talent level isn’t going to increase. [For] a lot of talent or evaluators … it’s the eyeballing test, it’s the ‘does he look like he can play,’” Collins said. “So I worked my butt off. I was in incredible shape … and I knew that I didn’t want to let anyone say that about me, yet one GM got back to me and did say something negative along those lines.”

Collins said people are capable of understanding other individuals situation and feelings. He discussed how a former teammate first made homophobic comments toward him, but later gave Collins full support.

“I didn’t know what to expect from him, however he was one of the guys who went out of his way early on when I was back with the team … [to say]  ‘hey, I just want you to know how proud I am of you, and I’m glad that you’re back in the league … I’m glad that you’re here and how big this is going to be for people going forward.’”

Collins explained that this represented a promising shift in attitudes toward him in his sexuality.

“This [sic] shows you that people are capable of change, that they just need someone to step up and show them.”