Jason Collins was honored with the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage at the 2026 ESPY Awards.
The late athlete posthumously received the accolade from GMA‘s Robin Roberts during the Wednesday, July 15, ceremony at David H. Koch Theater in New York City’s Lincoln Center. As the NBA’s first openly gay player, Collins was recognized for his impact on LGBTQ+ visibility in professional sports.
A video package featured Collins’ husband, Brunson Green, breaking his silence on the NBA pioneer’s death from stage IV glioblastoma diagnosis in May 2026.
“When he first got diagnosed he was scrolling Wikipedia about glioblastoma and [how] basically it’s a death sentence,” Green recalled. “He wanted to fight it and see how long he could sustain his life because it might actually help other people.”
Jason’s twin brother, Jarron Collins, accepted the award on his behalf. As he spoke, Brunson was shown in tears as he looked on from the audience.
“I wish my brother was here to accept this award but I find myself honored to accept this award on his behalf,” Jarron, 47, said.
He went on, “When Jason was diagnosed with glioblastoma, he was willing to share his experience, his treatment and his plans with the hope that if not for him, then for others. I pledge to make sure that tonight is not the end of my brother’s legacy — it’s just the beginning. There are so many more people who can benefit from hearing his story and it’s our responsibility to keep telling it and carry on what he started.”
News broke in June that Jason would become the latest recipient of the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage, which is given to an individual who has made a difference off the field by standing up for their beliefs. In a statement at the time, Jarron, 47, said, “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.”
The ESPYs honor comes two months after Jason’s family announced his death in a May 12 statement to the NBA. He was 47.
“We are heartbroken to share that Jason Collins, our beloved husband, son, brother and uncle, has died after a valiant fight with glioblastoma,” the statement read.
“Jason changed lives in unexpected ways and was an inspiration to all who knew him and to those who admired him from afar,” the statement continued. “We are grateful for the outpouring of love and prayers over the past eight months and for the exceptional medical care Jason received from his doctors and nurses. Our family will miss him dearly.”
Later that month, Us exclusively revealed that Jason died of respiratory failure. According to his death certificate, several underlying conditions contributed, including a blood clot, the buildup of fluid in his brain and brain cancer.
Jason publicly shared his stage IV glioblastoma diagnosis in December 2025.
“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,” he told ESPN at the time. “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 added that his glioblastoma was “extraordinary for all the wrong reasons.” He described it as “wild type” because it had “all these mutations that make it even more deadly and difficult to treat.”
At the time, Jason — who married husband Green in May 2025 — also reflected on coming out more than a decade earlier.
“When I came out publicly as the first active gay basketball player in 2013, I told a lot of the people closest to me before I did so,” he noted. “I wasn’t worried it would leak before the story came out because I trusted the people I told. And guess what? Nothing leaked. I got to tell my own story, the way I wanted to. And now I can honestly say, the past 12 years since have been the best of my life. Your life is so much better when you just show up as your true self, unafraid to be your true self, in public or private. This is me. This is what I’m dealing with.”
Jason hoped sharing his cancer journey with the world could be similarly impactful.
“After I came out, someone I really respect told me that my choice to live openly could help someone who I might never meet,” he recalled. “I’ve held onto that for years. And if I can do that again now, then that matters.”
