Jason Collins, first openly gay athlete to play in NBA, makes U.S. sports history

On February 23, 2014, Brooklyn Nets center Jason Collins becomes the first openly gay athlete to play in a game in the United States’ four major professional leagues. The 35-year-old journeyman plays 10 scoreless minutes, recording two rebounds and five fouls in the Nets’ 108-102 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers.

In May 2013, Collins revealed he is gay in a first-person essay in Sports Illustrated. “I’m a 34-year-old NBA center. I’m Black. And I’m gay,” he wrote. “I didn’t set out to be the first openly gay athlete playing in a major American team sport. But since I am, I’m happy to start the conversation.”

READ MORE: LGBT History

Before his revelation, the seven-foot, 255-pound big man was primarily known as a solid defender and rebounder and the identical twin brother of NBA veteran Jarron Collins. 

Collins, unsigned through the first half of the 2013-14 season, got an opportunity with the Nets after Brooklyn made a trade to open a roster spot. He had played with the Nets for the first seven years of his NBA career. 

“The decision to sign Jason was a basketball decision,” Nets general manager Billy King said in a statement. “We needed to increase our depth inside, and with his experience and size, we felt he was the right choice for a 10-day contract.”

The reception for Collins, who played collegiately at Stanford, was mostly positive. Outspoken TV commentator and Hall of Famer Charles Barkley told the New York Daily News’ Mike Lupica: “This is a good day in terms of breaking another barrier, but we gotta get to the point where people stop worrying about this.”

Collins appeared in 22 games for the Nets in 2014, the final season of his 13-year career. 

In 2021, Las Vegas Raiders defensive lineman Carl Nassib became the first active NFL player to announce he is gay. No active NHL or Major League Baseball Player has  announced he is gay.

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First basketball game played

On December 21, 1891, 30-year-old James Naismith introduces the first game of basketball. Based on 13 rules created by Naismith, the game is tested by 18 students at the International Young Men’s Christian Association Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts. Two teams of nine players each compete against each other, with the objective to throw a soccer ball into a peach basket attached to a balcony 10 feet above the floor.

READ MORE: How a Canadian Invented Basketball

In the early 1890s, Naismith—who was born in Canada—moved on from his job in Montreal as McGill University’s athletic director to become a physical education teacher at the YMCA International Training School. Bored and unruly students needed an activity during difficult New England winters. So, Naismith took up another teacher’s challenge to keep students in line. 

“I called the boys to the gym, divided them up into teams of nine and gave them a little soccer ball,” Naismith recalled in a 1939 radio interview that aired on WOR-AM in New York City. “I showed them two peach baskets I’d nailed up at each end of the gym, and I told them the idea was to throw the ball into the opposing team’s peach basket. I blew the whistle, and the first game of basketball began.”

A jump ball was held after each made basket.

“The invention of basketball was not an accident,” Naismith said. “It was developed to meet a need. Those boys simply would not play ‘Drop the Handkerchief.'”

Under two different sets of rules, the first organized collegiate basketball games were played in the mid-1890s. 

Naismith, who died in 1939, became the first basketball coach at Kansas University, where he led the Jayhawks from 1898-1907. 

READ  MORE: The Lithuanian Immigrant Who Launched the First Women’s College Basketball Game

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Satchel Paige nominated to Baseball Hall of Fame


Year
1971
Month Day
February 09

On February 9, 1971, pitcher Leroy “Satchel” Paige becomes the first Negro League veteran to be nominated for the Baseball Hall of Fame. In August of that year, Paige, a pitching legend known for his fastball, showmanship and the longevity of his playing career, which spanned five decades, was inducted. Joe DiMaggio once called Paige “the best and fastest pitcher I’ve ever faced.”

Paige was born in Mobile, Alabama, most likely on July 7, 1906, although the exact date remains a mystery. He earned his nickname, Satchel, as a boy when he earned money carrying passengers’ bags at train stations. Baseball was segregated when Paige started playing baseball professionally in the 1920s, so he spent most of his career pitching for Negro League teams around the United States. During the winter season, he pitched for teams in the Caribbean and Central and South America. As a barnstorming player who traveled thousands of miles each season and played for whichever team met his asking price, he pitched an estimated 2,500 games, had 300 shut-outs and 55 no-hitters. In one month in 1935, he reportedly pitched 29 consecutive games.

In 1947, Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier and became the first African American to play in the Major Leagues when he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers. The following year, Paige also entered the majors, signing with the Cleveland Indians and becoming, at age 42, baseball’s oldest rookie. He helped the Indians win the pennant that year and later played for the St. Louis Browns and Kansas City A’s.

Paige retired from the majors in 1953, but returned in 1965 to pitch three innings for the Kansas City A’s. He was 59 at the time, making him the oldest person ever to play in the Major Leagues. In addition to being famous for his talent and longevity, Paige was also well-known for his sense of humor and colorful observations on life, including: “Don’t look back. Something might be gaining on you” and “Age is a question of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.”

He died June 8, 1982, in Kansas City, Missouri.

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Magic Johnson announces he is HIV-positive

Year
1991
Month Day
November 07

On November 7, 1991, basketball legend Earvin “Magic” Johnson stuns the world by announcing his sudden retirement from the Los Angeles Lakers, after testing positive for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. At the time, many Americans viewed AIDS as a gay white man’s disease. Johnson (1959- ), who is African American and heterosexual, was one of the first sports stars to go public about his HIV-positive status.

Revered as one of the greatest basketball players of all time, Johnson spent his entire 13-season NBA career with the Lakers, helping them to win five championships in the 1980s. The 6’9″ point guard, a native of Lansing, Michigan, was famous for his extraordinary passing skills, contagious smile and love of the game. In 1981, he signed a 25-year deal with the Lakers for $25 million, one of the NBA’s first over-the-top contracts.

Johnson, a three-time NBA “Most Valuable Player” and 12-time All-Star team member, didn’t completely hang up his basketball shoes after announcing his retirement in 1991. He was voted most valuable player of the 1992 NBA All-Star Game and played on the Olympic “Dream Team” (alongside Michael Jordan, Larry Bird and Patrick Ewing) that won gold for the U.S. in Barcelona that summer. He briefly returned to the Lakers for the 1993-94 season as head coach and made a short-lived comeback as a Lakers player in the 1995-96 season.

Today, Johnson is a prominent spokesman for AIDS awareness and a successful businessman, earning millions from a range of ventures, including movie theaters and restaurants. He serves as an example of how a variety of drug treatments have transformed AIDS from a death sentence into a manageable condition for many people in the U.S. and around the world. 

READ MORE: How AIDS Remained an Unspoken—But Deadly—Epidemic for Years

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Wilt Chamberlain sets NBA rebounds record

Year
1960
Month Day
November 24

On November 24, 1960, Philadelphia Warrior Wilt Chamberlain snags 55 rebounds in a game against the Boston Celtics and sets an NBA record for the most rebounds in a single game.

The seven-foot-one-inch Chamberlain–often called “Wilt the Stilt,” a nickname he detested, or “The Big Dipper,” because he was so tall that he had to dip his head to get through the doorway–was, sportswriters and fans agree, one of the best offensive basketball players of his era. 

He broke more than 70 NBA records. In his 14-year career in the NBA, he scored 31,419 points. He was the highest scorer in the NBA from 1960-1966, and led the league in rebounding for 11 of his 14 seasons. And during the 1966-67 season, when his coach asked him to shoot less and pass more, Chamberlain had more assists than anyone else in the league.

The single-game rebound record that he set on November 24 isn’t even his most impressive. In March 1962, he scored 100 of his team’s 169 points in a game against the New York Knicks–more than any NBA player had ever scored in one game. 

The Big Dipper was so commanding that the league had to change its rules to keep him away from the basket. It widened the lane to 16 feet; prohibited offensive goaltending; and stipulated that a free-throw shooter can’t cross the line until his shot hits the rim of the basket. (Authorities meant this last rule to prevent Chamberlain from taking off at the free-throw line and dunking his foul shots.)

Chamberlain was named to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1978, the first year he was eligible, and in 1997 he was elected to the NBA’s 50th Anniversary All-Star Team. He died in 1999.

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Wilt Chamberlain scores 100 points


Year
1962
Month Day
March 02

On March 2, 1962, Philadelphia Warriors center Wilt Chamberlain scores 100 points against the New York Knicks. It was the first time that a professional basketball player had scored 100 points in a single contest; the previous record, 78, had been set by Chamberlain earlier in the season. During the game, Chamberlain sank 36 field goals and 28 foul shots, both league records.

Wilt Chamberlain was born on August 21, 1936, in Philadelphia. He grew to a full 7 feet 1 inches tall, and was an amazing athlete for his size: In addition to basketball, he competed in the high jump and long jump in college and played volleyball, helping to launch a professional league in which he competed after his basketball career ended. Chamberlain’s basketball heroics began at Overbrook High School in Philadelphia, where he helped his team to two city championships. At the University of Kansas, he led the Jayhawks to the NCAA championship, which they lost to North Carolina in triple overtime, 54-53. During his college career, Chamberlain was often the target of aggressive play and the North Carolina game was no exception–at one point, Tarheel Pete Brennan grabbed Chamberlain around the waist and began to wrestle him. Tired of being abused by his opponents, Chamberlain left Kansas after his junior year. At the time, the NBA prohibited the signing of college-aged players, so Chamberlain spent a year playing with the Harlem Globetrotters before signing with the Warriors in 1959.

Wilt was an immediate sensation in the NBA, and the most dominant offensive force the league had ever seen. He was named Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player for the 1959-60 season, his first of four MVP awards. During the 1961-62 season–Chamberlain’s most dominant offensively–he averaged 50.4 points per game (breaking his own record of 38.4 points per game from 1960-61) and 25.7 rebounds per game. He later led the Philadelphia 76ers and Los Angeles Lakers to NBA championships, in 1967 and 1972, respectively.

Chamberlain’s career, however, was marred by his frustration over continued physical abuse, particularly at the hands of the Boston Celtics, led by Chamberlain’s good friend and on-the-court foil Bill Russell. The matter was made worse by Chamberlain’s poor free-throw shooting, and fans and the media continuously heckled and questioned him about his notorious struggles with foul shots.

Chamberlain retired from the NBA after the 1972-73 season. He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1978. Chamberlain gained notoriety later in life by claiming in his autobiography, A View From Above (1991), that he had slept with 20,000 women in his lifetime. On October 12, 1999, he died of a heart attack at his home in Los Angeles. He was 63 years old.

READ MORE: 10 Things You May Not Know About the Harlem Globetrotters

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Texas Western defeats Kentucky in NCAA finals


Year
1966
Month Day
March 19

On March 19, 1966, Texas Western College defeats the University of Kentucky in the NCAA men’s college basketball final at Cole Field House in College Park, Maryland. This marked the first time an all-black starting five had won the NCAA championship.

The top-ranked University of Kentucky men’s basketball team was favored in the final over the third-ranked Miners. Adolph Rupp, Kentucky’s coach from 1930 to 1972, recruited almost exclusively inside Kentucky, earning the nickname “The Baron of Bluegrass.” Like many other coaches of the time, Rupp neither recruited nor played African-American players. Using exclusively white players, Rupp eventually established the most successful coaching career in college history: He had four national championships to his credit, one NIT title and was on his way to 876 wins, a record number upon his retirement in 1972.

Western Texas’ journey to the 1966 NCAA championship was depicted in the 2006 film Glory Road.

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Spud Webb wins dunk contest


Year
1986
Month Day
February 08

On February 8, 1986, Spud Webb, who at 5’7” was one of the shortest players in the history of professional basketball, wins the NBA slam dunk contest, beating his Atlanta Hawks teammate and 1985 dunk champ, the 6’8” Dominique Wilkins.

Anthony Jerome “Spud” Webb was born July 13, 1963, in Dallas, Texas. Throughout his life, Webb had to prove himself as a basketball player due to his relatively small stature. As a high school player, he averaged 26 points per game and was one of 10 students out of 5,000 selected to the All-State team; however, his size prevented him from being recruited for Division 1-A colleges. Instead, he attended Midland Junior College in Texas, where he led his team to victory in the 1982 junior college championship. He then caught the attention of the coaches at North Carolina State University, where he went on to play for two years.

Despite a strong college career, his size initially kept him from making the NBA and after graduation he played in the U.S. Basketball League. In 1985, he had a successful tryout with the Atlanta Hawks and joined the team. Webb played six seasons with the Hawks, followed by stints with the Sacramento Kings, the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Orlando Magic.

One of the most memorable events of Webb’s career was his dunk contest win, which took place on February 8, 1986, at the NBA All-Star Game Weekend in Dallas. Webb, the shortest player to ever participate in the competition to that time, went up against men who were, in some cases, a foot taller. In the end, size didn’t matter. Webb dazzled the crowd with his soaring dunks and bested teammate Dominique Wilkins, who had won the 1985 contest by beating Michael Jordan. (The NBA’s first slam dunk competition was held in 1984.)

Webb retired from basketball in 1998, after 12 seasons in the NBA. He was said to have paved the way for other height-challenged NBA players, including 5’5” Earl Boykins and 5’3” Muggsy Bogues. 

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NBA merges with ABA

Year
1976
Month Day
August 05

On August 5, 1976, the National Basketball Association (NBA) merges with its rival, the American Basketball Association (ABA), and takes on the ABA’s four most successful franchises: the Denver Nuggets, the Indiana Pacers, the New York (later Brooklyn) Nets and the San Antonio Spurs.

Founded in 1967 to fill the basketball void in areas not served by the 10-city NBA, the ABA selected former NBA star George Mikan as its first commissioner. He helped institute a more entertaining, high-scoring brand of basketball than that seen in the NBA, as well as an eye-catching red, white and blue ball, the three-point shot and an emphasis on marketing players with colorful nicknames like Julius “Dr. J” Erving and George “The Iceman” Gervin. Despite these popular innovations, the ABA was plagued by a series of bad business decisions, among them a failure to copyright the red, white and blue ball, which went on to sell wildly in the 1970s. The league also struggled to reach a mass audience, as only one of its cities was a top 20 American market. As a whole, the population in ABA cities was less than half that of the NBA cities, and although the underdog league was popular with what fans it did reach, in the end it could not make enough money to survive on its own.

Seeing the writing on the wall, seven ABA owners agreed to a merger, set for August 5, 1976, with the NBA; it was announced to the public on June 17. Plans were then made to dismantle three of the seven ABA franchises and incorporate their players into the NBA. According to the terms of the deal, the three teams not absorbed into the NBA would be paid a separately negotiated lump sum. One of the three teams, the Virginia Squires, went bankrupt before the merger, but the other two were rewarded with substantial payouts. The owner of the Kentucky Colonels, John Y. Brown Jr., received a payout of $3.3 million dollars, while the Silna brothers, owners of the Spirits of St. Louis, negotiated what many believe to be the best deal in sports history: They received $2.2 million dollars and 1/7 of a share of each of the four remaining ABA (now NBA) teams’ television rights in perpetuity. 

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NBA suspends Latrell Sprewell for attacking coach

On December 4, 1997, the National Basketball Association (NBA) suspends Latrell Sprewell, three-time All Star point guard for the Golden State Warriors, for one year after he attacked Warriors’ coach P.J. Carlesimo. During practice on December 1, Sprewell had a verbal confrontation with Carlesimo when the coach told him to “put a little mustard” on a pass. When Carlesimo approached him, Sprewell grabbed the other man around the neck and began choking him, until he was pulled away by several other players and team officials. Told to leave practice, Sprewell returned within 20 minutes and threw a punch at Carlesimo before he was again pulled away.

Carlesimo, who was known for his aggressive and often confrontational coaching style, had a history of problems with Sprewell, having previously benched the guard–his team’s leading scorer–after he was late to practice. The Warriors initially terminated Sprewell’s contract, and his year-long suspension was the longest ever handed out by the NBA. After Sprewell pushed for arbitration, the sentence was later reduced to 68 games, a gap that still cost Sprewell some $6 million in wages. After Sprewell was reinstated, Golden State traded him to the New York Knicks, where he resumed his career in 1999 and was embraced by the fans as a rebellious antihero. Carlesimo was fired by Golden State early in the 1999 season after his team limped to a 6-21 start.

In July 2003, the Knicks traded Sprewell to the Minnesota Timberwolves. During his 13 seasons with the NBA, Sprewell racked up an average of 18.3 points per game, and helped lead the Timberwolves to a berth in the playoffs during the 2004-05 season, When the season ended, however, Sprewell rejected a three-year, $21 million extension offer from the Timberwolves. As of late 2007, he remained a free agent.

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