Former Nets owner recalls Jason Collins as 'a terrific kid'

If Jason Collins' historic revelation Monday suggested a knack for diplomacy, it's probably not surprising given the identity of the recruiter who nearly two decades ago persuaded him and twin brother Jarron to attend Stanford.

According to Lewis Katz, who owned the New Jersey Nets when they drafted Collins out of Stanford in 2001, it was a future secretary of state who drew the towering twins to Palo Alto, Calif.

"They were high school phenomena. Both 7-footers," said Katz, the co-managing partner and director of Interstate General Media, which owns The Inquirer. "Jason said they were being recruited heavily and that they'd thought a lot about Kentucky and Duke, which were two obvious schools for them.

"But, he said, one night a woman came around, knocked on their door, sat down with their mother, and after a half hour they were going to Stanford. So I said, 'Who was the woman?' And he said, 'Condoleezza Rice.' "

Katz said he had no indication that Collins, who played in New Jersey for seven seasons, was gay when the team made him the 18th overall pick in the 2001 NBA draft.

"That wasn't even on our radar," Katz said. "The only thing on your radar when you draft someone, other than obvious basketball skills, is character. And he was top of the list on character. Still is. He's just a terrific kid. He can't jump. But he's still a good rebounder, and he's got that high basketball IQ."

What Katz, who sold the team in 2004, remembers best about Collins is the outcome of the draft-day trade that landed him with the Nets.

New Jersey swapped its No. 7 overall pick with Houston for the Rockets' three first-round selections. Houston, Katz, said, was eager to draft Eddie Griffin, the Roman Catholic product who died in a 2007 car crash at age 25.

The Nets used those picks to draft Richard Jefferson at No. 13, Collins, and Brandon Armstrong at No. 23.

"That was probably the best trade we ever made," Katz said. "I'm not bragging, but we got Richard Jefferson and Jason Collins, both of whom ended up starting and both of whom are still in the NBA."

Collins, who never averaged more than 6.4 points or 6.1 rebounds as a Net, still made a significant impression on the team's owner.

"If you'd gone down our roster at the time, there wasn't a better adjusted human being than Jason Collins," Katz said. "And that wasn't the standard of the day in the NBA. His brother was the same way. . . . "He's a special kid."

Support from Obama. President Obama said he told Jason Collins that he "couldn't be prouder of him" for coming out as gay while playing in a major sports league.

Speaking at a news conference Tuesday, Obama said Collins showed the progress the United States has made in recognizing that gays and lesbians deserve full equality. He said they deserve "not just tolerance but recognition that they're fully a part of the American family."

English soccer hit. John Amaechi, an Englishman who became the first openly gay former NBA player in 2007, three years after retiring, said he knows gay soccer players playing in the English Premier League, but would not advise them to come out.

"The NBA is light years ahead of [the Premier League]," Amaechi said in a telephone interview with the Associated Press.

Meanwhile, former Leeds United and U.S. national team midfielder Robbie Rogers, who retired at age 25 in February after announcing he is gay, joined the Los Angeles Galaxy for an open-ended training stint on Tuesday, though his MLS rights are owned by the Chicago Fire.

This article contains information from Inquirer wire services.