Miami, Sept. 27, 2016 – Miami Dade College’s (MDC) North Campus will host Jason Collins, former National Basketball Association (NBA) basketball player, at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 28, at the Science Complex. This event is organized by the North Campus Student Government Association, in collaboration with Pride=Unity, the campus’ student organizations that provides support and awareness for LGBTQ issues.
Collins will be accompanied by State Representative David Richardson of District 113. This is a non-partisan voter registration drive to promote involvement in the upcoming presidential election. Collins will speak about civic duty, voter registration and the importance of becoming informed about issues.
Collins is a retired professional basketball player who played 13 seasons in the NBA. He played college basketball at Stanford University where he was an All-American in 2000–01, before being drafted 18th overall pick in the 2001 NBA draft by the Houston Rockets. He went on to play for the New Jersey Nets, Memphis Grizzlies, Minnesota Timberwolves, Atlanta Hawks, Boston Celtics, Washington Wizards and Brooklyn Nets. After the 2012–13 NBA season concluded, Collins publicly came out as gay. He became a free agent and did not play again until February 2014, when he signed with the Nets and became the first publicly gay athlete to play in any of four major North American pro sports leagues. In April 2014, Collins was featured on the cover of TIME Magazine’s “100 Most Influential People in the World.”