Jarron Collins, whose twin brother Jason Collins was the first male
U.S. athlete in a major professional sport to come out as gay, now has a "I'm The Straight One" T-shirt to set the record straight about his own sexuality.
Jarron, himself a retired NBA player who is married, is often mistaken for his brother, as he explained during a Wednesday appearance on the ABC late night show "Jimmy Kimmel Live."
"I was literally at the urinal in the restroom and . . . I look over and someone turns to me and says 'Jason?'" Jarron told Kimmel while his brother sat between the two laughing. "And I'm like, 'no that's the other one,' . . . I didn't want to know what happened if [I] had said, 'Yes, I'm Jason.'"
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Kimmel presented Jarron with the "I'm The Straight One" T-shirt to the applause of the audience.
"It will save me a lot of time," Jarron quipped as he accepted the t-shirt.
The Collins brothers played together at Stanford University before playing in the NBA for different teams.
According to Jarron, there were several red flags before Jason officially came out to the world, particularly when he and his sister-in-law would attempt to set him up with women to date and he always had an excuse as to why he wasn't interested.
"He’s my best friend and any time you come out to someone, you always have that apprehension that they’re going to reject, even though I knew that that wasn’t going to be the case," Jason Collins said about his brother.
Despite Jason's apprehension, Jarrod told Kimmel: "He’s my twin brother, of course I was going to be supportive of him all the time."
Jarron, who retired in 2011, was asked by Kimmel for his initial reaction to the news that his brother was gay.
"He was very direct about it," recalled Jarron. "He says 'Jarron, I'm gay'. I heard it, but I didn't quite register it."
Amid laughter, Jarron added, "And I went about asking some of the dumbest questions you can possible ask someone who just told you they're gay . . . 'Are you sure?'"
Another person close to Jason who was shocked by his coming out announcement was his former fiancée Carolyn Moos, a 34-year-old personal trainer and ex-professional basketball player. Moos was engaged to Jason, having spent eight years of her life with him, until she says he broke it off with her in 2009 without an explanation.
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On April 29, Sports Illustrated's website posted an article written by Collins in the first-person in which he publicly announced his homosexuality.
The 34-year-old Collins, who has been in the NBA for 12 seasons, is presently a free agent after he was released by the Washington Wizards at the end of the last season.
Collins says he wants to continue playing, The Associated Press reported.
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