Beyond the Baseline Podcast: Former NBA player Jason Collins

On this week's episode, Jason Collins talks about how he became a tennis player and fan, his involvement in politics and LGBT rights advocacy and more.

On this week's episode of the SI Tennis Beyond the Baseline Podcast, Sports Illustrated executive editor and host Jon Wertheim talks with former NBA player and tennis fan Jason Collins.

After speaking at the Democratic National Convention with his twin brother, Jarron, Collins joins the podcast to talk about his involvement in politics, his relationship with the Clinton family and his speech at the DNC. Collins also talks about tennis, as he grew up playing the sport, follows it closely and still participates and plays today. After attending last week's Citi Open in Washington D.C., Collins talks about his experiences watching Gael Monfils and Ivo Karlovic and how he views tennis after playing basketball professionally. Collins is first active male athlete in the four major U.S. team sports to come out as gay and he revealed the news at the end of the 2012-13 NBA season in an article he wrote for Sports Illustrated​​, and he discusses what life has been like since that day. Collins talks about his efforts and advocacy for LGBT rights and his opinion on gay athletes today. 

Wertheim and Collins also talk about Serena and Venus Williams and how Collins became such a big tennis fan and avid player. 

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Also on the podcast, Collins shares details about his friendships with various tennis players, including Bob and Mike Bryan, who also attended Stanford like Collins. 

Listen below and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or on Stitcher.

Check back on SI.com next week for another episode of Beyond the Baseline.