This past week, NBA player Jason Collins immediately became the most talked-about athlete in sports after he announced that he was gay. As the first openly gay male athlete in American professional sports, Collins immediately put himself at the center of a conversation that has been on the minds of the media, the players and fans for decades. Understandably, Collins has been both praised and derided for his lifestyle and his decision to make it public, but hip-hop superstar Lil Wayne told MTV News that he supports Collins and believes his actions have gone a long way towards erasing taboos.
“What it does for sports? It’s opening a lot of doors and it’s showing that it’s a fair world out there,” Wayne replied when asked about Collins’ potential impact during a Miami launch party for his new Spectre by Supra sneaker, the Chimera.
“Just to see how many people came to his support and things like that, that’s a pretty fair world out there,” Weezy added. “Be you.”
Just a day before, fellow hip-hop star A$AP Rocky acknowledged that people should care less about who other individuals choose to be romantic with.
“That’s his business,” Rocky said in an interview. “I respect men more for coming out. People joke on Frank Ocean a lot but at least he’s not out here fronting. It’s a lot of people, a lot of motherf–kers be out here, they be the closet motherf–kers, you know? I don’t respect them. I respect gay men who identify it and who are out with it. I don’t have a problem with gay people at all. So it’s like, that’s his business. It don’t concern me.”
Rocky also admitted he didn’t know who Collins was prior to being told of his announcement.
“Number one, I barely get to watch basketball like that as it is. Number two, I don’t even know who this n—a is that you talking about,” Collins said. “Dead a–. He probably has ten times more money than me but I don’t know who he is. We got the Frank Ocean of the NBA now who came out and did what he had to do. Shout-outs to him.”
