The fear of being judged for who we truly are can sometimes be so overwhelming that it prevents us from living our best lives. We pretend to be someone else in order to blend in with the crowd. However, the misery that follows is the pain and grief that consumes us until we finally give up and make the revelation.

Jason Collins, an NBA star, fought the urge to come out as gay for a long time. And when he realized he couldn’t keep lying any longer, he made the announcement, becoming the first NBA player to do so.

Jason was a defensive stopper in the NBA for thirteen seasons before retiring in November 2014.

Goodbye Basketball: According to SI.com, Jason Collins has announced his retirement from the NBA (Published on 19 Nov 2014)

The former NBA player has a massive net worth of $16 million thanks to his iconic jersey number 98.

Jason Collins’ twin brother was completely unaware that he was gay.

The retired African American basketball player was born in Los Angeles, California on December 2, 1978. His twin brother Jarron Collins, who is also a retired NBA player, was born alongside him.

Jason was born into the same womb as his brother, but he was too afraid to tell his brother about his homosexuality. He was zipped up for the matter until he was 33 years old. And it wasn’t with Jarron that he revealed the secret for the first time.

Collins was frightened of being questioned about his sexual orientation.

Collins, Jason: “I’m a 34-year-old NBA power forward. I’m a black person. I’m also gay.”

November 2013 was the year he summoned the fortitude to accept the revelation’s judgment. Years had passed since he admitted to himself that he was gay for the first time. He’s spent enough time hiding his secret in the closet.

The retired footballer grew tired of pretending to be straight in order to hide his gay status. Every time he had to introduce himself to others, he had to fight his emotional battle. To maintain the pretense, he told his teammates that he had a girlfriend in order to blend in with the crowd.

The torturous lies eventually forced him to admit his true identity. And he soon recognized that it was time for him to be vulnerable.

So he had an emotional and courageous conversation with his then-agent, Arn Tellem, whose good response prompted him to make a public disclosure in a first-person essay in Sports Illustrated. The first line of the paragraph was as follows:

Collins overcame his greatest fear and became the first professional male athlete in any of the four main North American team sports to come out as gay, which he considered a victory.

Former US President Barack Obama, TV broadcasters Oprah Winfrey and Ellen DeGeneres, and NBA star Kobe Bryant were among many who congratulated him on his victory.

Another Big Lie About Jason Collin’s Almost Wife

Collins was engaged to Carolyn Moos, a former women’s professional basketball player, for eight years in an attempt to live like a straight man. But he realized he’d never be able to make Carolyn his wife. In 2009, he made it apparent to his soon-to-be wife-to-be by canceling the engagement.

Carolyn may have experienced sadness at the time, but four years later, when the gay revelation occurred, she processed the divorce for all the right reasons.

Who Is Jason Collins’s New Business Partner?

The NBA legend found it simpler to love his actual identity after coming out as an openly gay guy. It allowed him to look for a partner based on their shared interests. Brunson Green, an Oscar-nominated producer from 2014, was the one he found.

Jason isn’t known for bragging about his dating life. But he is savoring the partnership more than ever before.