Jason Collins Has Been Preparing His Whole Life For This
A single successful day does not ensure a comfortable future in the public eye for Jason Collins. If the free agent center does manage to find a spot on a team this offseason, he will be faced with a rush of media attention, vocal haters spewing invective at every road game, and a subsection of the culture inclined to think his brave decision was inspired by impure motives. (Collins’s agent, Arn Tellem, has already had to explain that he didn’t push his client to come out to boost his chances of getting a contract.) He may also play with a teammate unwilling to accept him or find himself in a locker room that inadvertently alienates him because of the novelty—and unique pressure—of the situation. Collins made this decision based on what it means for the rest of his life, not for one day, and it’s impossible to know from here how his experience will unfold over time.
There will come a time when a sports star comes out of the closet and no one will care. Not the media. Not the internet. Not teammates. Nobody. But that will be a different kind of indifference. An accepting indifference.
How to Talk About Jason Collins (If You’re a Meathead)
Here’s Drew Magary on how homophobes are speaking in code these days, or as he put it, “a shithead’s guide to bragging about how much you don’t care about Jason Collins.”
On an evening where the most important NBA news threatened to be Phil Jackson joining Twitter and inaugurating his account with the tweet, “11 champ;ipnsikp[ ringhs,” the Miami Heat’s epic 27-game win streak ended last night in Chicago. Here’s how the Bulls did it.
The GQ+A: Jimmy Goldstein
GQ: Is fashion a young man’s game?
Jimmy Goldstein: That’s what happens to most people. And I take pride in the fact that I’ve remained young. I still feel like I’m in my twenties. And I still try to follow what’s going on, what’s new, what’s changing, and not get caught up in staying the way I was. Most people don’t do that.GQ: There’s something to aging gracefully, but there’s something heroic about fighting.
Jimmy Goldstein: Well I’m a fighter. I’m in denial about my age. I’ll admit it. But I still go out with girls in their early twenties. I hang out with young people, that’s where I feel comfortable. And there’s no question that young people admire me for the way I dress. Whereas old people don’t get it. So the young age group is where I belong.
I’m the Valentino of the NBA.
Inside the NBA’s New Style Wars
The rivalry among the NBA’s elite has spilled off the court and into an arena where athletes have historically feared to tread: high fashion. Players show up for games wearing leather pants, lensless glasses, and printed silk shirts—and that’s just Russell Westbrook. GQ’s Steve Marsh spent a week trailing basketball’s biggest names—Kevin Durant, Kobe, D-Wade, LeBron—to find out how they’re turning the league into a runway for the world’s tallest peacocks.
Miracle on 34th Street
Believe it, New York. The Knicks are the NBA’s most exciting team.
GQ November 2012: Jeremy Lin
“I’d be a huge liar if I told myself, ‘I knew I could do that.’ You know what I mean? That’s not realistic. Let’s just be honest. I had no idea I could play like that. It was as amazing to me as it was to everybody else.”
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JD.
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Robert Redford in The Great Gatsby [1974]
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Kate.
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Longreads Member Pick: After Visiting Friends (Chapter 1), by Michael Hainey
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Be still, our little shipper hearts!
