Jason Collins Detailed the “Weird Symptoms” That Led to His Stage 4 Glioblastoma Diagnosis

In 2013, Jason Collins made history by being his authentic self. He shared in a remarkable first-person essay with Sports Illustrated that he was gay, becoming the first active athlete to do so. Jason's trailblazing moment sparked necessary conversations within the sports industry. He went on to play in the league, playing for six teams across his 13-year NBA career — New Jersey Nets, Memphis Grizzlies, Minnesota Timberwolves, Atlanta Hawks, Boston Celtics, Washington Wizards, and back to the Brooklyn Nets — before retiring from the sport in 2014.

In 2025, 11 years after his retirement and 12 since he publicly came out, Jason bravely revealed another update. This time, the news was regarding the athlete's health. Here's what to know.

On Dec. 11, 2025, Jason wrote an essay to ESPN to open up about his heath in his own way. In the essay, he addressed how his family released a statement on his behalf in September 2025, where they shared he had a brain tumor.

“A few months ago, my family released a short statement saying I had a brain tumor," Jason wrote to ESPN. "It was simple, but intentionally vague. They did that to protect my privacy while I was mentally unable to speak for myself and my loved ones were trying to understand what we were dealing with."

"But now it’s time for people to hear directly from me," I have Stage 4 glioblastoma, one of the deadliest forms of brain cancer. It came on incredibly fast."

Jason further shared in his essay that he began noticing "weird symptoms," including not being able to get ready for a travel engagement he had in time to make his flight. He also said he experienced memory loss before getting diagnosed and compared himself to a, "NBA player's version of Dory from Finding Nemo. After realizing something was "really wrong," he had a CT scan, which was when he realized the severity of his symptoms.

"I was in the CT machine at UCLA for all of five minutes before the tech pulled me out and said they were going to have me see a specialist," Jason recalled. "I've had enough CTs in my life to know they last longer than five minutes and whatever the tech had seen on the first images had to be bad."

As Jason mentioned, a glioblastoma is an aggressive form of brain cancer. According to the Glioblastoma Research Organization, the median survival rate for adults living with the disease is 14.6 months. However, the organization noted some have lived longer, with the longest documented survivor living for 25+ years after getting diagnosed.

With Jason's prognosis at Stage 4, he shared that his form of "glio" is more aggressive than most.

"What makes glioblastoma so dangerous is that it grows within a very finite, contained space — the skull -— and it’s very aggressive and can expand," he explained. "What makes it so difficult to treat in my case is that it’s surrounded by the brain and is encroaching upon the frontal lobe — which is what makes you, ‘you.’”

Jason also shared his biopsy concluded he “had a growth factor of 30 percent” which, he explained, meant that “within a matter of weeks, if nothing were to be done, the tumor would run out of room and I’d probably be dead within six weeks to three months.”

While there is no cure for a glioblastoma, Jason said he was prescribed Avastin, which he called “my best chance of stopping the growth of the tumor and regaining any quality of life back.” He also said he plans to defeat his tumor "in ways it's never been hit: with radiation and chemotherapy and immunotherapy that’s still being studied but offers the most promising frontier of cancer treatment for this type of cancer.”

Jason's cancer diagnosis came months after he married "the love of my life," Brunson Green.