ABSTRACT
In April 2013, basketball player Jason Collins became the first openly gay active athlete in any of the four major professional male team sport leagues in the United States: Major League Baseball (MLB), National Basketball Association (NBA), National Football League (NFL), National Hockey League (NHL). Only six athletes from these four leagues had ever announced they were gay or bisexual, none of whom were well known and all announcing after their careers were over (Kian and Anderson, 2009). However, it remains to be seen at the time of this writing whether Collins will become the first active gay athlete in the NBA and thus face the in-season media attention that would come with such standing.
