Oprah Winfrey lands interview with Jason Collins and his family

NBA player Jason Collins made news this week with his announcement that he was gay. As the first openly gay player in the league, Collins has generated a lot of attention, so it’s no surprise that one of his first sit-down interviews to discuss things will be with Oprah Winfrey.

The first interview with Collins and his twin brother, Jarron, is set to air Sunday on “Oprah’s Next Chapter” on OWN.

After playing with the Boston Celtics and Washington Wizards this season, Jason is a free agent. His brother retired as an NBA player in 2011, after 10 seasons.

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There have been several male athletes who have come out of the closet after they retired, but Collins is the first to come out while still an active professional player. The announcement earned widespread acclaim and spurred President Obama to call to offer his support to Collins.

Jason and Jarron will also be joined by their parents, Portia and Paul Collins, sister-in-law Elsa Collins and aunt Teri Jackson, a San Francisco Superior Court judge who was the first person Jason came out to.

Winfrey may be the first to speak with the Collins family, but it was George Stephanopoulos who landed the first post-announcement interview with Jason, on ABC News on Monday.

Since its debut in early 2012, “Oprah’s Next Chapter” has been the place Winfrey had taken all of her high-profile interviews, including a much-hyped two-night sit-down with Lance Armstrong in January.

That event, which was broadcast on multiple platforms in 190 countries, was Winfrey’s biggest broadcast ever on her cable channel, with a total audience of about 28 million people worldwide.

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