You can always depend on The New York Times, bless its heart. Here is a Harvey Araton column about the fact that Jason Collins, the gay NBA player whose cause he once ballyhooed, can’t get a job. Excerpt:

The question Collins has to ponder is why he has not been signed as a free agent. Is it because he is at best a marginal player with modest career statistics (3.6 points and 3.8 rebounds a game) nearing the end of his career, one who would cost more than a younger player based on the league’s collectively bargained pay scale? Or is there something more sinister at work related to the new role he would play?

:::::::Twiddles Snidely Whiplash mustache::::::::

Well, he’s aging, his stats aren’t great, and according to league rules, a player with his experience has to be paid $1.4 million annually — three times the salary of a younger player. Coming out may have been a last-ditch effort to save a sputtering career. From the column:

Another advocate for gay athletes, Hudson Taylor, the executive director of Athlete Ally, wrote in an e-mail: “The decision to sign him rests with individual team owners. One of them has to step up.”

Really? Why? Why should a team owner throw a million and a half dollars at a “marginal at best” player who is at the tail end of an undistinguished career? Because of LGBTokenism? This is progress?