Jason Collins made his debut against the Lakers last month.
Credit: Getty Images
The Nets officially announced Wednesday morning they re-signed Collins to a second 10-day contract.
The team initially signed him on Feb. 23 prior to their win over the Lakers when he made history by being the first openly gay player to appear in an NBA game.
The move is expected to be a precursor to the Nets signing Collins to the rest of the season. League rules stipulate that a player cannot sign a third 10-day contract so when this one ends on March 14, the Nets would have to re-sign him for rest of the year. Given their lack of size, it would be surprising if they didn’t.
Before his home debut Monday, Collins answered questions in a press conference, including about the reports from Yahoo! Sports and other outlets that had the Nets signing him to a second 10-day contract.
“I’ll let my agent do all of the business side of basketball,” he said. “Arn Tellem, in my mind, he’s the best agent in the business. I’ll let him handle his job, and I’ll do my job, which is the basketball.”
In five games for the Nets this season, Collins has scored three points, pulled down five rebounds and collected 11 fouls in 36 minutes.
Besides having a connection to head coach Jason Kidd from their time in New Jersey, Collins also played with Paul Pierce in Boston and Joe Johnson in Atlanta. Both players were excited about the likelihood of Collins sticking around after Monday’s game.
“It’s good,” Pierce said. “It’s a veteran presence on the bench or when he’s in the game. He’s very in-tune to what’s going on. He’s picked up things in a matter of a week or so, so having that big-man depth is going to be huge for us coming down the stretch of the season. I don’t know how much longer I’m going to have to guard the Boozer’s or the Zach Randolph’s of the world but he’s going to have our back.”
“He’s cool,” Johnson added. “I got a chance to spend a lot of time with in Atlanta in two years. He’s a great guy. He’s a great locker room guy, good jokester. So I think everyone loves having him around.”
Follow Nets beat writer Larry Fleisher on Twitter @LarryFleisher.
