We have our first openly gay American active athlete

Did he go to Stanford with Chelsea, possibly?

 

Condi is on the Stanford faculty now.

 

I think I explained well enough. If you think it's sad and pathetic, then so be it. Keep it moving Rip. Find someone else to debate with.

 

I wonder if Collins was scrambling to make this announcement while he was still an "active" player.

I don't think we'll be able to gauge how people will truly react to this type of announcement until a superstar announces.

There will be a lot of conversations like this today... "Jason Collins became the first active athlete from the Big 4 sports to announce that he's gay."

"Who the hell is Jason Collins?" or "Collins is still in the NBA?" or "Wait, was that the guy from Stanford?"

 

Yeah but he's probably worthy of a spot in the league too -- just like people said it would be some veteran who is pretty well liked and respected. Collins even started a handful of games this year and he has that physical role where he lends some minutes against the true centers.

Plus big guys stay around a frickin' long time. Caldwell Jones played 17 seasons. Juwan Howard is in his 19th.

 

He's not anywhere close to the caliber of player Caldwell Jones was and Juwan Howard is. But he's big and may be in the league again next year.

 

Kurt Thomas comes to mind, as well.

 

I predict that, despite not caring, Drip will have a post like this on any thread that's similar to this one.

 

Yep. While I applaud his courage, the "still active" part does come with a bit of a disclaimer.

Collins' NBA career was basically over anyways. He has barely touched the floor the last few years, has no contract after this year, and it's very likely he wouldn't have had a job in the League next season regardless. Which I suspect influenced his decision to announce now, as there's nothing really to lose at this point in his career. Hell, if anything, this might result in pressure from the League for someone to sign him to avoid the appearance/speculation that he might've been blackballed.

Still waiting for someone to come out in the prime of their career when it really matters.

 

I give the guy a lot of credit.

I think he'll linger around the league for a couple more years, which will be good for this. Now at least anyone who decides to follow suit can say, "Well, I'm not the first..." but I don't think we're going to see a big reaction to something like this until a superstar does it, and that may still be a long way off.

 

He pretty much admitted that his role is to utilize his six fouls. Someone will always have room for a seven-footer who takes charges, can play a little D and doesn't give a shit about scoring.

 

Um, I think he cleared up that last part today as inaccurate.