Jason Collins, a 12-year NBA veteran who played for the Minnesota Timberwolves for one season, has come out as the first openly gay male athlete still active in a major American team sport.

'I'm a 34-year-old NBA center. I'm black and I'm gay,' Collins writes in the May 6 edition of Sports Illustrated. The magazine published the article online Monday, April 29.

The announcement makes Collins a pioneer of sorts: the first player in the NBA, the NFL, the NHL or Major League Baseball to come out while still pursuing his career.

Other gay athletes, including the former NBA center John Amaechi, have waited until retirement to divulge their sexual orientation publicly.

The announcement followed recent decisions by two other prominent athletes -- the U.S. soccer player Robbie Rogers and the women's basketball player Brittney Griner -- to acknowledge that they are gay.

When Rogers, 25, revealed last month that he is gay, he also said he was retiring from soccer. (He has since indicated he may play again.) Griner, the No. 1 pick in the WNBA draft, will soon embark on her professional career.

Collins, who split this season between the Boston Celtics and the Washington Wizards, will become a free agent on July 1. He intends to pursue another contract in the summer, which may serve as a test for how NBA teams respond to the announcement.

In his essay, Col.