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- ESPN announced Jason Collins will posthumously receive the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage at the 2026 ESPYS in Los Angeles.
- Jarron Collins will accept the award on his brother’s behalf, calling the honor profoundly bittersweet and celebrating a lasting legacy of visibility and love.
- Jason Collins raised LGBTQ+ visibility and used his platform to raise awareness about glioblastoma, pursuing experimental treatments while advocating for others.
Jason Collins made history when he became the first openly gay player in the NBA in 2013. Now, months after his death, his life and legacy will be celebrated at sports’ biggest awards show.
ESPN announced on Monday that Collins, who died in May from a brain tumor, will be honored with the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage at the 2026 ESPYS in Los Angeles. Collins raised LGBTQ+ visibility and was hailed as a pioneer of inclusion and one of the NBA’s ambassadors.
“It is profoundly bittersweet but deeply meaningful to accept the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage on my brother’s behalf, celebrating a legacy of visibility, strength, and love that will endure forever,” Jarron Collins, Jason’s twin brother who will receive the award in his brother’s honor, said in a statement.
Collins made history in 2013 when he revealed he was gay, later appearing with the Brooklyn Nets during the 2013-14 season. His most prolific years in the NBA came with the Nets, who he helped to two NBA Finals appearances in the early 2000s. In recent months before his passing, he was vocal about his cancer diagnosis, opting for experimental treatments to prolong his life while spreading awareness for others who were diagnosed with glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer for which there is no cure.
Named after tennis great Arthur Ashe, the award is given to an individual or group who have made differences off the field by fighting for rights and causes that are welcoming for all, ranging from socioeconomic reform, criminal justice, visibility of marginalized people and more.
Past recipients of the Arthur Ashe Award include NBA player Kevin Love for his outspokenness about mental health, basketball Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson for his commitment to the fight for economic justice, former NFL player Steve Gleason for his raising of awareness for ALS, Bill Russell and former WNBA star Maya Moore, who retired from basketball to fight for criminal justice reform and helped overturn the wrongful conviction of a man who would later become her husband.
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