BleedGopher
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Per Collins:
A few months ago, my family released a short statement saying I had a brain tumor. 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.
In May I married the love of my life, Brunson Green, at a ceremony in Austin, Texas, that couldn't have been more perfect. In August, we were supposed to go to the US Open, just as every year, but when the car came to take us to the airport, I was nowhere near ready. And for the first time in decades, we missed the flight because I couldn't stay focused to pack.
I had been having weird symptoms like this for a week or two, but unless something is really wrong, I'm going to push through. I'm an athlete.
Something was really wrong, though. 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. 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.
According to my family, in hours, my mental clarity, short-term memory and comprehension disappeared -- turning into an NBA player's version of "Dory" from "Finding Nemo." Over the next few weeks we would find out just how bad it was.
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. 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."
My glioblastoma is "multiforme." Imagine a monster with tentacles spreading across the underside of my brain the width of a baseball.
www.espn.com
A few months ago, my family released a short statement saying I had a brain tumor. 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.
In May I married the love of my life, Brunson Green, at a ceremony in Austin, Texas, that couldn't have been more perfect. In August, we were supposed to go to the US Open, just as every year, but when the car came to take us to the airport, I was nowhere near ready. And for the first time in decades, we missed the flight because I couldn't stay focused to pack.
I had been having weird symptoms like this for a week or two, but unless something is really wrong, I'm going to push through. I'm an athlete.
Something was really wrong, though. 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. 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.
According to my family, in hours, my mental clarity, short-term memory and comprehension disappeared -- turning into an NBA player's version of "Dory" from "Finding Nemo." Over the next few weeks we would find out just how bad it was.
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. 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."
My glioblastoma is "multiforme." Imagine a monster with tentacles spreading across the underside of my brain the width of a baseball.
Jason Collins, on his cancer diagnosis: It's Stage 4 glioblastoma and I'm fighting
In an exclusive with ESPN, the 13-year NBA veteran and pioneer reveals that he is fighting for his life.