The playbook was you come out a couple years after you retire. And I didn't want that to be me.

I'm here with Jason Collins. Guess what? Are you a Valley boy?

I am a Valley boy.

I'm a Valley girl. Harvard-Westlake? I live two minutes from there.

Oh, you do? Yes. Oh, wow. Yes. Small world.

Is it in a small world? So, Out to Win. Yes. So many great athletes in this film. Yes. And such a great message. Who were sort of like the people that you looked up to or did you have those people?

Like I actually reached out to a former NBA basketball player named John Amichi. If I'm going to be sticking out, it will be being outstanding rather than being freakish. And uh he was very supportive, had some great pieces of advice, and that's actually how I got involved with Out to Win. Going back to other heroes, I have to say two people, um Billy Jean King and Martina Navratilova. Who are both in the film. Yes.

The message is you can't do that. It's never been done. But I go, well, I don't care what we do. I don't care. But anyway, I said, I want to tell the truth. I've been outed and I'm not going to lie. They say controversial. I'm controversial by birth. I was born in a communist country. I defected and I'm I'm gay.

When both of them came out, it wasn't pop- Martina for a long time, she has been sort of leading the march and slowly but surely, you know, more and more athletes, male and female are are joining that chorus. I'm just such a huge fan of Martina, like she's my idol.

It's like I got no choice not to be an activist.

Who is the person that you get starstruck over now?

Two people come to mind. Beyonce. I love her. Love Beyonce. And then first lady, Michelle Obama. Huge fan of hers. She is just radiant. Uh my friends call me the Black Larry David. And I would do awkward moments. So, I was talking to the President. He was asking me, are you training? Are you in shape? And I'm like, yes, Mr. President. I'm I'm training. I'm in shape. I'm working out. I said at one point, it's like, look, I'll show you. I'll take off my shirt and show you my six-pack and show you that I've been working out, but I don't think that the Secret Service or the first lady want me to take my shirt off. He looks he's like, yeah, that's a good idea. You should probably keep your shirt on. As I'm walking away, I was like, did I just offer to take my shirt off to the President of the United States? And I was like, yeah, I just did. You have to have a good sense of humor. You have to be able to, you know, take a joke, laugh at yourself, not take things too seriously. Yeah. It's a good approach to life.

Now, you retired from from basketball, and I know you're going to be commentating for Yahoo Sports. Yes. And how's your life changed since coming out?

And my life is just, it's incredible. I mean, even when I was playing last year for the Brooklyn Nets, to have my boyfriend waiting for me after the game in the family room, just where everyone else is. That's how I I hope it is for every LGBT athlete. That you can, you know, go out there and play your sport. Um and then after the game is over, that you don't have to hide who you are and be fully embraced and welcomed and, you know, that's how life should be.

Can we stand up side by side?

Yeah, we can stand up.

I'm sure everybody does this to you all the time, but I want to do a slow rise because I'm I'm going to stop growing and you're just going to keep going. Yeah. Thank you so much.

Thank you.