Former NBA player and current TNT analyst Charles Barkley said it is “really unfair” to say that an NBA team has not signed Jason Collins because he is gay. The NBA season begins on Tuesday and, as Breitbart Sports has reported, there has not been much interest in Collins because he has averaged 3.6 points per game and 3.8 rebounds per game over the span of his career.
Barkley made his comments about Collins, who was the first gay player in a major North American sport to come out and be acknowledged, to Sports Illustrated:
I think [the question] is a little unfair because he was on the downside of his career. I’m hoping someone picks him up, but to say nobody has picked him up because he is gay is really unfair. He was on his last legs as it was. It’s an interesting situation because if you are a veteran team that needs six fouls and has a chance to win a championship, OK, maybe [you sign him]. Or he can mentor some young guy who has real potential but had some stuff going on, like a DeMarcus Cousins. Unless you are a championship contender and need a big body who can give you six fouls a game, it is not like he’s averaging a bunch of points.
Barkley also said though he felt the “players would be cool with it” if a team signed Collins, he wanted to see how “the fans would react.”
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