Number 98 | Jason Collins: The Courage To Live Out Loud
The trailblazing NBA player who changed professional sports by coming out—and left a legacy of courage, authenticity, and LGBTQ+ visibility.
Episode 98 carries special meaning.
Jason Collins wore No. 98 as a quiet tribute to Matthew Shepard, whose 1998 murder became a defining moment in the fight against anti-LGBTQ+ violence, and to The Trevor Project, which was founded that same year. Long before Collins was ready to tell the world he was gay, the number allowed him to carry a private truth onto the basketball court.
Born alongside his identical twin brother, Jarron, Jason grew from a talented California basketball player into a Stanford standout and a respected 13-year NBA veteran. He played for six franchises, appeared in two NBA Finals and built a reputation as a physical, selfless teammate who understood that not every meaningful contribution appears in a box score.
But throughout most of his career, Jason was carrying something his teammates and fans could not see.
In April 2013, Collins told his story in a groundbreaking first-person Sports Illustrated essay. By coming out publicly while still pursuing his NBA career, he became the first active male athlete in one of North America’s four major professional team sports to do so. When he later took the court for the Brooklyn Nets, he became the first openly gay player to compete in one of those leagues.
This episode explores more than a historic first. It is a deeply human story about the exhaustion of hiding, the fear of disappointing people you love, the freedom that comes with telling the truth and the difference one person can make simply by refusing to disappear.
Jason’s influence continued long after his final NBA game. As an NBA Cares ambassador and advocate for LGBTQ+ inclusion in sports, he helped make locker rooms, arenas and communities more welcoming for the people who would follow him.
Jason Collins died in May 2026 at age 47 after living with glioblastoma. Later that year, he was posthumously selected to receive the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage—an honor recognizing a legacy that extended far beyond basketball.
Jason did not set out to become a symbol. He wanted to live honestly. In doing so, he gave countless other people permission to imagine that they could do the same.
This is the story of Jason Collins: basketball player, brother, husband, advocate and barrier-breaker.
References and further reading
- Jason Collins’s groundbreaking first-person essay in Sports Illustrated
- NBA: Jason Collins passes away after a valiant fight with glioblastoma
- NBA Commissioner Adam Silver’s statement on Jason Collins’s legacy
- Stanford Athletics remembers Jason Collins
- The story behind No. 98 from the Matthew Shepard Foundation
- Jason Collins and the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage
Music credits
Music featured in this episode was sourced through Uppbeat:
- “1st Class” — Mountaineer
- “Beginnings” — MonoBox
- “Big Dreams” — Simon Folwar
- “Broken” — David Bullard
- “Hope Is Alive” — Infraction
- “Lonely Mountains” — Monument Music
- “Movement” — MonoBox
- “Pieces of Light” — Tobias Voigt
- “Sunset in Junipero” — bách.
Sound credits
- “Basketball Practice” — amthomas101, Freesound
- “Small Applause” — sclolex, Freesound
- “High School Basketball Game with Crowd Noise” — blurry_bear, Freesound
- “Basketball Game Crowd Ambience” — GFX Sounds
- “Newborn Baby Crying” — freesound_community, Pixabay
- “Little Baby Crying, Newborn, Infant Cries” — nematoki, Pixabay
Sound effects are used under their respective platform licenses.
Content note: This episode discusses homophobia, anti-LGBTQ+ violence, cancer and death.