ESPN is reporting that Jason Collins, who came out as openly gay last year, will become a member of the Brooklyn Nets.
He is expected to sign a 10-day contract and be in uniform tonight.
Collins, 35, has averaged 3.6 points and 3.8 rebounds in a 12-year NBA career. The 7-foot tall center has built a long career based on his defense and joins a Nets team doing everything possible to make a playoff run.
Jason Collins, a 12-year N.B.A. veteran, has come out as the first openly gay male athlete playing in a major American team sport.
“I’m a 34-year-old N.B.A. center. I’m black and I’m gay,” Collins writes in the May 6 edition of Sports Illustrated. The magazine published the article online Monday morning.
The announcement makes Collins a pioneer of sorts: the first player in the N.B.A., N.F.L., N.H.L. or Major League Baseball to come out while still pursuing his career. Other gay athletes, including the former N.B.A. center John Amaechi, have waited until retirement to divulge their sexuality publicly.
Collins, who split this season between the Boston Celtics and the Washington Wizards, will become a free agent on July 1. He intends to pursue another contract in the summer, which may serve as a test for how N.B.A. teams respond to the announcement.
