Image via Complex Original
Prior to today, Jason Collins probably wasn't going to find himself in any NBA record books when he retired. After all, he's only averaged a modest 3.6 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 0.5 blocks during his 12-year NBA career. He's also played for six different squads during his time in the league, including three teams in the last 12 months. Not exactly Hall of Fame-worthy credentials. But, after today, Collins will likely go down as one of the most important NBA players of his era. The reason? He just revealed that he is gay, making him the first active athlete in any pro sport to ever come out of the closet.
Shortly after Collins came out, the sports world reacted swiftly with dozens of athletes taking to Twitter to express their opinions on the news about Collins. To help you get a better grasp of how his fellow athletes responded, we collected some of the best reactions here. Click through to see how The Sports World Reacts to Jason Collins Coming Out.
Wait, Swish has 1.6 million followers? *works on Swisher's Most Badass Social Media Moments list* We kid. Relax.
Our only issue with your squad's L on Saturday was the 21-point buffer. You're messing up the spread, fam.
Can being the first openly gay pro athlete in America improve your golf game? Apparently so. Enough to beat Nick Van Exel? Apparently not.
The "most accepting community of those who are different?" FOH. If that was the case, wouldn't Collins have come out a looooooong time ago?
In addition to sending out tweets in support of Collins, Spike is also retweeting some of the most ignorant tweets of the day and responding to them as well.
Nash has been speaking up about gay rights and gay marriage for years now. So it's no surprise to see him voicing his support for Collins.
Jason Kidd only tweets about once a month. We're glad he saved this month's tweet to write this.
We co-sign everything Jeanie said. On another note, did you peep her avatar? Phil stays winning.
Collins' last team was the Washington Wizards but he spent some time with the Celtics before that.
The ignorance of "others" huh, Kobe? Don't think we forgot. That being said it's nice to see you're more tolerant these days.
A lot of athletes will try to front like they were always in support of gay rights but Kluwe's been down with the movement for a while. Salute to him.
We're glad D-Wade supports Collins coming out and we're even happier that he didin't try to use it as an opportunity to promote his Li-Ning kicks. You never know when it comes to athletes and social media.
Amaechi came out in 2007, four years after he last played in the NBA. Real recognize real.
