Jason Collins, the former NBA player who became the first openly gay man to play in a major US pro sports league, said Thursday he's battling "one of the deadliest forms of brain cancer."

Collins, who revealed in a brief statement in September that he was undergoing treatment for a brain tumor, said in an interview with ESPN's Ramona Shelburne published Thursday that he has stage 4 glioblastoma.

"It came on incredibly fast," the 47-year-old said, describing early symptoms of memory loss and inability to focus that reached a tipping point in August.

"I had been having weird symptoms like this for a week or two, but unless something is really wrong, I'm going to push through. I'm an athlete," Collins said.

But he said a CT scan revealed the extent and seriousness of his illness, which he

See Full Page