After the passing of Jason Collins, the first openly gay active NBA player, ESPN’s Charles Barkley insisted that the U.S. is still a terribly “homophobic society.”
Collins, who died from brain cancer on Tuesday at the age of 47, made national headlines in 2013 when he publicly came out as gay. And for Barkley, Collins’ admission made him a “shining example.”
“Courageous, and when he came out, man, I thought it was amazing to put himself under the microscope and the scrutiny and the hatred and the vitriol that was going to happen,” Barkley said as the panel memorialized Collins, according to Awful Announcing.
“But man, I hate the way this story ended because he was a shining example. Do you man,” Barkley continued. “Obviously, anybody out there who’s struggling with their sexuality, do you. Gay people have the right to do what they want to do. It’s nobody else’s business at all. For him to come out, it was great and obviously, you know, a lot of times, especially in the black community, when you’re gay, you get treated awful. And that sucks, too. But I was proud of him for coming out. And when I got that news yesterday, it just sucked.”
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Barkley went on to claim that the U.S. is still as “homophobic” as ever.
“But Kenny, in fairness, now, if another guy did it, it would still be a big deal because we live in a homophobic society. And that’s unfortunate,” Barkley said after co-host Kenny Smith said his piece about Collins. “That’s why, first of all, anybody who thinks we ain’t got a bunch of gay players in all sports, they’re just stupid. But there is such animosity toward the gay community, and that’s what’s really unfortunate. But anybody who think him, and I know a couple other soccer players that came out, if you think there are not more gay players in the NFL, Major League Baseball, and the NBA, you’re just stupid.”
While Collins did announce openly that he was gay, he really only did so just as his NBA career was coming to its end.
When he made his announcement, Collins was a free agent. After the announcement, the Brooklyn Nets signed him to a 10-day contract. He ended up playing about 25 percent of the Nets’ season, and then he retired from the league.
Collins had recently revealed his diagnosis of Stage 4 glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer.
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