Growing up on Long Island in the 2000s, I was the rare kid whose favorite basketball team wasn’t based in Manhattan.
Nope, through the Nets’ ABA history at the Nassau Coliseum on Long Island (thanks, Dr. J), I was a die-hard New Jersey Nets fan. My dad had a pair of season tickets at Continental Airlines Arena (then Izod Center, Prudential Center and now Barclays Center) so we often made the 60-to-90 minute trek to East Rutherford to watch our Nets.
When I first became a big fan, it was the early 2000s and I lucked into back-to-back years of the Nets making the NBA Finals but ultimately losing in both years to really, really good Lakers and Spurs teams in the 2001-2 and 2002-3 Finals. Those were disappointing finishes, to be sure, but those teams were so much fun to watch and I fell in love with them.
One mainstay of both of those Eastern Conference champion teams was Jason Collins, who officially announced his retirement from the NBA a few days ago. Now he’s known as the first active openly gay player in any of the four major professional sports but, to seven-year old me, he was just that guy who always took charges and had a set shot.
How he even got to the Nets in the first place was a bit convoluted. After graduating from Stanford, where he played with twin brother, Jarron, (the comparisons to the Lopez brothers are pretty remarkable) Collins was drafted by the Rockets in 2001 and was immediately traded along with Richard Jefferson and Brandon Armstrong to the Nets for Eddie Griffin.
Interestingly, the 18th overall pick used to select Collins was traded three times prior to the draft. First it was sent from the Suns (along with the pick eventually used to draft Amar’e Stoudamire) to the Magic. Then, through a pair of complex, multi-team deals, it ended up with the Rockets. Also, another note, current Net Joe Johnson was taken with the 10th pick in that draft, just eight slots ahead of Collins.
Now on the Nets, Collins took part in the amazing transformation of New Jersey from a 26-win team in the 2000-1 season to a 52-win team in the next one. The trade of Stephon Marbury to the Suns for Jason Kidd was probably the biggest catalyst in the improvement but the intangibles Collins brought to the table certainly helped.
He became a mainstay in the Nets’ starting lineup for awhile, even after Byron Scott was fired and Lawrence Frank replaced him. Although he never averaged more than 6.4 points and 6.1 rebounds for a season, his presence on the floor was always felt and his constant hustle and brilliant defensive play made New Jersey, even in the down years, a fundamental squad.
Collins never was a star, never made an All-Star team and on a national scale, was certainly overshadowed by his teammates, such as Kidd, Vince Carter and Jefferson to name a few. But to those Nets fan who watched the team enough in the decade past, such as myself, it was the little things he did on the court that made him so endearing.
Never have I seen a player as willing, and good, at taking charges as Collins, who I’d assume was near the top of the NBA in that statistic during his team with the Nets (he did play for the Grizzlies, Timberwolves, Hawks, Celtics and Wizards after leaving New Jersey). He also committed fouls at an ungodly rate, but you couldn’t be upset with them because they were usually good, hard fouls.
I just found that I couldn’t get mad at Collins very often, even though he certainly had his faults as a player. He was a likable player who fit the mold of a smart veteran whose best place was on a winning, playoff team. The monumental news of his coming out as gay in 2013 made me smile because there was no NBA player I would rather see become that role model for gay athletes in the United States.
Now that he won’t be returning to the NBA, I realize I’m going to miss Jason Collins and his on-court contributions for the Nets and off-court contributions for the rest of society. Honestly, through the first 17 years of my life, he’s been one of my favorites.
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