Jason Collins and Blake Skjellerup post-game (Pic: Facebook) Out New Zealand athlete Blake Skjellerup has watched the NBA’s first openly-gay player take the home court for Brooklyn, and says the reception from fans was something he will never forget. After waiting around as a free agent since he came out, NBA veteran Jason Collins has been signed up on successive ten-day contracts by the Nets, one of his former teams. Last night he took the court at home for the first time against the Chicago Bulls. “Last night I was a part of something I thought I would never witness,” crowd-member Skjellerup says of the experience. “I was a part of history, and to put it bluntly, it was pretty damn exciting.” As time ticked away on the clock, the crowd began roaring for Collins to be brought on. “In the space of 30 seconds, I saw one of the greatest things about sport, and something I had always believed existed, but never witnessed. The gentleman beside me was not the only person calling out ‘Jason Collins’. As I think about it now, the goosebumps I felt last night re-appear,” Skjellerup writes in a piece on HyperVocal. “An arena full of people, calling and chanting the name of a player who is undoubtedly one of the most well-known athletes in the world, who is in a professional sport, and is gay. As Jason took to the court, the crowd, myself included, took to our feet. The applause and cheering that followed was something I will never forget.”
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Wednesday, 5th March 2014 - 9:52am