The Nets have signed Jason Collins to a second 10-day contract, the team announced Wednesday morning.
Collins, whose first 10-day contract expired Tuesday, is all but certain to be signed for the remainder of the season once this second 10-day contract expires next Friday. The only thing likely to keep him from being retained for the rest of the season is if he gets hurt between now and then.
“Hopefully we can move past those 10 days and he’s with us for the rest of the season,’’ coach Jason Kidd, a former Collins teammate, said at morning shootaround.
The Nets made history by signing Collins on Feb. 23 in Los Angeles and playing him that night against the Lakers, making him the first openly gay player in the four major American professional sports. Collins has played sparingly in each of the five games the Nets have played since then, scoring a total of three points and grabbing five rebounds in 37 minutes.
“It’s good,” Paul Pierce said Monday of keeping Collins around. “He has a veteran presence on the bench or when he’s in the game. He’s very in tune to what’s going on. He’s [caught on] very quickly, in a matter of a week or so, and having that big-man depth is going to be huge for us coming down the stretch of the season.
“I don’t know how much longer I can have to guards the [Carlos] Boozers and Zach Randolphs of the world,” Pierce added with a smile, referring to two of the league’s bigger power forwards. “He’s going to have to have my back.”
The Nets, who crushed the Bulls on Monday, play Wednesday night in Brooklyn against the Grizzlies.