After last season came to a close, it looked like veteran center Jason Collins had played his last game.
After all, Collins played in just 38 games last season, 32 for the Boston Celtics and six for the Washington Wizards. He averaged just 1.1 points and 1.6 rebounds per game.
The market for 35-year old centers who can’t log many minutes and have diminished skills isn’t usually very large.
Collins blocked all of that out and stayed positive because he didn’t want to give up on his dream of returning to the court.
“I never really thought along those lines,” Collins told Steve Buckley of the Boston Herald. “As a professional, you always have to stay ready. … You never know when that opportunity’s going to come, and when it does come you have to be ready.”
That opportunity finally came.
Earlier in the season, the Nets lost center Brook Lopez for the rest of the season to foot surgery.
After the Nets were unable to make a deal for a reserve big man before the trade deadline, they turned to Collins.
Collins is averaging 0.5 points and 1.0 rebounds in 8.8 minutes per game while appearing in six games for the Nets this season.