A day after Jason Collins came out as gay, former teammates Jason Kidd and Kenyon Martin said his decision will make the world a better place. Knicks star Carmelo Anthony gushed over Collins’ courage.
“It was a huge step for him to come out and make that statement,” Anthony said Tuesday before Wednesday’s Game 5 against the Celtics at the Garden. “For him to come out right now, be the first athlete to do so, it takes a big set to do that, especially in the society that we live in and knowing that everybody’s going to have something to say.
“For him to step up to the plate and do that, I’m pretty sure that will open the floodgates for a lot of other people.”
Collins came out in a first-person Sports Illustrated story published online Monday as the first active openly gay player in one of the four major U.S. leagues. While the Knicks generally applauded Collins’ courage, Anthony was proven right in that there were still those that had “something to say.’’
Larry Johnson, who played five years with the Knicks and is now a basketball and business operations representative, tweeted “don’t [know] Jason Collins personally but he seems like a great guy. Me personally gay men in the [locker] room would make me uncomfortable,” adding “Ppl! this is nothing against Jason or homosexual’s, all I’m saying is this don’t belong in a man’s locker room.”
But Martin and Kidd, who played alongside Collins in New Jersey, both praised Collins’ courage and remain steadfast friends to this day.
“It takes a great man. I commend him for having the courage,” Martin said. “I have no problem with him. He was my friend before, he’ll still be my friend. He was a great teammate, helped us get to two Finals. … Like he said, somebody had to be the one to raise their hand. He was the first to do it, so you have to take your hat off to him.”
Collins spoke with Kidd on Monday morning, hours before his revelation went public.
“Jason’s a good friend of mine and he was also a teammate in Jersey. He’s a true professional on and off the court,’’ Kidd said. “It takes a lot of courage what he did, but it’s just going to make the world a better place.’’
Woodson, who coached Collins in Atlanta in 2009-10, also spoke with his former player Monday.
“The decision that he made, we got to live with it. That’s his personal life. Life moves on. We got to move on,’’ Woodson said. “It’s something we can’t hide. It’s out there. He was man enough to step forward to express his feelings about it. We all know now. He’s going to live his life. I’ve got a game to win.’’
That game is against the Celtics, who traded Collins to Washington on Feb. 21. Collins is a free agent and it remains to be seen whether he will find work next season. Boston coach Doc Rivers — whom Collins already had confided in — said his sexual orientation shouldn’t matter.
“I wasn’t surprised by the article or the statement because we’d talked about it recently,’’ Rivers said. “He told me he was coming out and I told him great. Good. Let’s move forward, and I jokingly said ‘I wish you could’ve got me more rebounds, because that’s all I care about, really.’ ”
— Additional reporting by Mark Hale, Marc Berman and Fred Kerber