Jason Collins Passes Away at 47 After Long Health Battle — Final Posts Reveal Touching Details

The beloved NBA trailblazer left the world with a final social media post that said more about who he was than any stat line ever could.

Jason Collins, 47, died on May 12, 2026, at his Los Angeles home after a long battle with a disease that had threatened to take him far sooner than it did. He was surrounded by family, especially the love of his life.

And while his death sent shockwaves through the sports world and far beyond it, the posts he shared in his final months show the kind of man he was in a way that's larger than words.

What Was His Background?

Jason grew up alongside his twin brother, Jarron Collins, the sons of Portia and Paul Collins. Both brothers went on to play at Stanford and in the NBA, but Jason carved out a legacy at the university that still holds today.

He shot nearly 61% from the field over his college career, a school record no Cardinal player has surpassed. That performance earned him an honorable mention on The Associated Press All-America team in 2001, just months before the Houston Rockets selected him 18th overall in that year's NBA draft.

His 13-year professional career took him through New Jersey, Memphis, Minnesota, Atlanta, Boston, Washington, and ultimately Brooklyn. Former Stanford coach Mike Montgomery highly respected him, noting that his size, intelligence, and skill made him a match for any player in the nation.

Montgomery also described him as a brilliant and kind person, and the Brooklyn Nets, his longest-tenured team, credited him with defining an era as a selfless and tough leader who earned universal respect.

Sadly, the man in question died after a battle with Stage 4 glioblastoma, one of the most aggressive and lethal forms of brain cancer.

His family confirmed the passing through a statement released by the NBA, noting that he impacted lives in surprising ways and served as an inspiration to both his personal acquaintances and his many distant admirers.

What Did He Do That Was So Impactful?

In April 2013, Jason became the first active athlete in any of the four major North American professional sports leagues to come out publicly as gay, through a cover story in Sports Illustrated. He was still under contract at the time, and he later described the decision in terms that were refreshingly matter-of-fact.

"When I chose to come out, there was no scandal or anything," he revealed to ESPN in November 2025. "This was like, I feel that I am good enough to play in the NBA and by the way, I'm gay. Just so everyone knows, cards on the table, this is where I am."

But the response came quickly and from the top. Jason recalled receiving back-to-back phone calls from Oprah Winfrey and former president Barack Obama after the story went public with congratulations and praise.

After a period without a team, he earned a spot with the Brooklyn Nets for the 2013-14 season. He appeared in 22 games alongside stars like Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce, playing for head coach and former teammate Jason Kidd. It was a quiet, dignified close to a career that had already meant far more than its statistics.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver released a statement explaining that Jason's influence reached well beyond the basketball court. Silver credited him with transforming the NBA, WNBA, and the entire sports industry into a more inclusive and inviting environment for those who follow.

Additionally, the National Basketball Players Association celebrated him as an international symbol of hope for the LGBTQ+ community. They recognized him for his dedication to improving environments within professional locker rooms, educational institutions, and various local communities.

Who Did He Share His Life With?

Off the court, Jason built a life with Brunson Green, a Hollywood film producer best known for his work on "The Help" and the founder of Harbinger Pictures in Los Angeles. Their story started quietly.

Jason said the two reconnected at a party after he ended another relationship, and Brunson left for Europe the very next day. "While he was overseas, I asked everyone I knew in LA, 'Have you heard of this guy?'" Collins recalled, describing the early pursuit with warmth.

The couple got engaged at a Los Angeles Lakers Pride Night event in 2023 and married in Austin, Texas, in May 2025, just one year before Jason's death.

They did not have children together, though Jason remained close throughout his life to his twin brother Jarron, his parents, and extended family, who were frequently present in the tributes that followed his passing.

How Did He Fight the Disease?

Jason was diagnosed in mid-2025. When he first heard the prognosis, doctors told him he had between six weeks and three months to live if he did nothing. He did not accept that.

"I started researching glioblastoma and all of my options. I wanted to know everything about what I was facing," he wrote for ESPN in December 2025. He framed his approach the way any competitor would, comparing the diagnosis to the toughest challenge he could imagine on a basketball court.

"There is no bigger challenge in basketball than going up against prime Shaquille O'Neal," he said, "and I've done that."

He chose a treatment plan focused on quality of life while also giving him a real shot at outlasting the initial prognosis. That search for options took him to Singapore in the winter of 2025-2026, where he received experimental treatments not yet authorized in the United States.

The results were good enough that he came home, attended NBA All-Star Weekend events in Los Angeles, and made it to a game at Stanford. But the cancer returned before he could complete the full course of treatment, and Jason died peacefully at his Los Angeles home, surrounded by his family.

In the days before his death, he was named the recipient of the inaugural Bill Walton Global Champion Award at the Green Sports Alliance Summit. He was too ill to attend the ceremony, and Jarron accepted on his behalf.

Standing before the room, Jarron said simply:

"He's the bravest, strongest man I've ever known."

What Did His Final Posts Reveal?

Even as his illness advanced, Jason kept thinking about others. His final post on social media, published on March 10, was a shared announcement for the Lenox Hill Neurosurgery Annual Brain Tumor Center Gala, scheduled for June 4, 2026, and hosted by Lara Spencer of "Good Morning America."

The post noted that Jason himself was being honored at the event with the 2026 Josh Wexler Trailblazer Award for his "inspiring resilience," alongside honoree Dr. Bruce Stillman, President and CEO of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Special guests listed included Pete Davidson, Kelly Blanc, and his husband.

Sadly, the post that has hit hardest for fans, though, comes from January 10, the last time Jason shared a photo with Brunson. It was a carousel from Singapore, and it opened with a video in which the athlete spoke about how treatment was going. He praised the doctors, the Singaporean government, and everyone who had supported him through the process.

The carousel also included a brain scan and a group photo with Brunson and the two scientists behind his experimental EDV treatment, Jennifer and Himanshu of EnGeneIC.

In the caption, Jason shared what the scans had shown, writing that he had "just finished cycle one of EDV treatment here in Singapore and the results are very encouraging."

He explained that his scan, called a FET-PET/MRI, "distinguishes actively growing cancer cells from necrotic (essentially dead) tumor cells," and that his own "tumor cells appeared to be non living." He called it "exciting news," adding that he was continuing further doses back in the US pending FDA approval.

But Jason and Brunson are the most important part of the group. The NBA star stands tall, dressed in a dark long-sleeved button-down shirt with dual chest pockets and buttoned flaps, paired with charcoal trousers and black athletic sneakers with a white sole. His posture is upright, and his arm is draped around Brunson's shoulders.

Meanwhile, his husband stands close in a layered look with a lavender crewneck sweater over a checkered blue-and-white button-down, olive chinos, and bright white sneakers. His left hand is tucked into his pocket, and he leans slightly into Jason, both of them smiling widely beside the scientists.

They look hopeful, like two people who genuinely believed, in that moment, that they had reason to be. The gala invitation, the Singapore update, the arm around his husband's shoulder, none of it reads like a goodbye, and that is exactly what makes these posts so hard to look at now.

As previously reported, Jason said he began experiencing strange symptoms in the summer of 2025, including moments of disorientation and an inability to focus. "In August, we were supposed to go to the US Open… but when the car came to take us to the airport, I was nowhere near ready," he wrote.

Despite pushing through the early signs, he soon realized something was seriously wrong.

He was rushed into a CT scan at UCLA, where the scan ended unusually quickly. "Whatever the tech had seen… had to be bad," he wrote. His mental clarity disappeared, and within hours, he struggled with comprehension and short-term memory.

The Diagnosis

While Jason's family shared that Jason had a brain tumor in September, he later disclosed more details, as it was a Stage 4 glioblastoma.

According to Jason, further tests confirmed a glioblastoma "multiforme," which he described as "a monster with tentacles spreading across the underside of my brain the width of a baseball."

A Dangerous, Aggressive Tumor

The biopsy revealed the tumor had a 30% growth factor, meaning it could have become fatal without urgent intervention. Jason said doctors later told him that due to the tumor's placement — already in both hemispheres of his brain — it was considered a butterfly glioblastoma, making it impossible to resect fully.

He also said his cancer is a "wild type," comparing it to "the Hydra," adding, "That's the kind of glio I have." In an interview with Ramona Shelburne, Jason said he experienced profound physical changes before and after the diagnosis.

"I'm now down to 240 lb, and before this, I was like 260. That was really crazy to lose that amount of weight," he said, adding that he also began experiencing memory lapses and episodes of sitting in a room and not realizing how long he had been sitting there.

His husband, Brunson, said Jason began behaving uncharacteristically:

"He seemed to always want to liberate himself from his clothes… 'Well, I feel like my shirt's uncomfortable, but I don't know why it's uncomfortable, so if I take it off, I don't have to think about it anymore.'"

When Brunson rushed him to the ER, doctors quickly identified "a baseball-sized mass in the middle of his skull." Faced with a cancer moving faster than his own body could keep up, Jason and his family turned their focus to the one thing they could control: how to fight it.

The Treatment Plan

Jason said his family urgently worked to get him discharged so he could begin Avastin, which he was told was his best chance to regain clarity. He began radiation shortly afterward. Within days, he started improving, from being wheeled into treatment to walking by the third session.

He was receiving care at a clinic in Singapore offering targeted chemotherapy using EDVs, which he described as a Trojan horse delivering medication through the blood-brain barrier straight into his tumors. The long-term goal is to keep the cancer stable long enough to create a custom immunotherapy.

Because his tumor is unresectable, Jason said the standard treatment, temozolomide (TMZ) chemotherapy, for his type of cancer offers an average prognosis of only 11 to 14 months, writing, "Because my tumor is unresectable, going solely with the 'standard of care' -- radiation and TMZ -- the average prognosis is only 11 to 14 months."

He added that if this path doesn't save him, he hopes it will help someone else. Even as doctors worked to slow the cancer's advance, the support surrounding Jason proved just as defining in how he moved forward.

Marriage and Family Support

Jason married the love of his life at a ceremony in Austin, an event celebrated by close friends, including Octavia Spencer and their tight-knit circle. "In May, I married the love of my life," he wrote in his statement.

Brunson became a central part of the medical planning process, working alongside Jason's family, including his twin brother Jarron, whom Jason said delivered a pivotal message, "You have to fight. No matter what, you have to fight."

In the interview with Ramona, Brunson added, "He's the rock of his entire family. And now… everyone's showing up for Jason."

Jason echoed that emotion, "I'm unafraid to break through a wall or try to do everything possible. I think because I'm such so surrounded by love and I know that my family is so strong and they will be okay."

His December 1 Instagram post, taken during a getaway with Brunson, emphasized his resilience, "Even when fighting brain cancer, you have to recharge… Very relaxing birthday weekend for @brunsong & me."

A Fighter on and off the Court

Jason framed his mindset through the lens of his athletic career. "As an athlete you learn not to panic… Shut up and go play against Shaq." He recalled his coming-out journey, linking the two challenges, "Your life is so much better when you just show up as your true self."

It is exactly that spirit that will be terribly missed. We offer our condolences to all those who loved him.