Jason Collins made history this week, when he became the first active player in one of the four major North American sports leagues to come out as openly gay. A 7’0, 255 center built to win wrestling matches on the low block, Collins has carved out a 12-year career as a defensive specialist for six different teams. Before his announcement, he was known mostly for his stint with the New Jersey Nets, where he was the starting center on NBA Finals teams in 2002 and 2003. Now, at 34, he’s at the tail end of his career, with a 3.0 PER in 38 games for the Celtics and Wizards during the 12-13 season.

After playing on a one-year contract for the veteran minimum last season, Collins will be the most discussed third-string center in the history of free agency this summer. A decade ago, a player with his skill-set wouldn’t have found much trouble staying in the NBA, as every team needed more size and experience on the low block. However, with the modern game becoming more perimeter-oriented, lumbering centers have become an endangered species. As a result, there’s a good chance Collins’ NBA career is over, not because of his sexuality, but because his job description is obsolete.

As even his most vocal supporters would acknowledge, Collins has always been a fairly limited player. Statistically, he has been one of the least productive players in the NBA for almost a decade. While no one expects a backup center to be a particularly skilled passer, shooter or scorer, Collins averages only 5.6 rebounds per 36 minutes of action, terrible numbers for a player his size. His only value on offense comes from his ability to do the things “that don’t show up in the box score”, but when he made his mark with the Nets at the beginning of his career, he could do box score things too.

He’s not that useful on the defensive end of the floor either. The best defensive centers have the quickness to move their feet across the lane and the explosiveness to defend far above the rim. Collins, on the other hand, is neither quick nor explosive. Even worse, his paltry defensive rebounding percentage of 14.5 percent means he allows a lot more offensive rebounds and second shots than his peers. His one redeeming skill is his ability to hold position on the low block, as it’s nearly impossible to dislodge someone of his size and strength without committing an offensive foul.

That’s where the problem comes for Collins: he’s a defensive specialist, except the players he’s supposed to defend no longer exist. When President Barack Obama talked about him to reporters, he said that Collins “had the strength to bang with Shaq”. Unfortunately for Collins, Shaquille O'Neal has long since taken his “comedy” act to TNT. In his prime, Shaq was such a dominant player that teams were forced to keep massive defensive specialists on hand just to give him six fouls. Collins averaged five fouls a game in the 2002 Finals. Shaq, in every sense of the word, was a job creator.

In the modern NBA, however, you can count the number of elite low-post scorers on one hand. Most can also step out and take a 15-foot jumper, rendering Collins useless. Perimeter-oriented big men dream of a match-up against a defender as slow as Collins. Not only does he lack the footspeed to contest their jumpers, he doesn’t have the skill to punish them on defense. As a result, opposing coaches can go small against him with impunity, essentially forcing his team to play 4-on-5 on both sides of the ball. Kendrick Perkins ran into the same problem in the 2012 NBA Finals, crippling the Thunder when Scott Brooks refused to adjust.  

Collins’ reputation comes almost exclusively from his ability to defend Dwight Howard, who is possibly the last of a dying breed of power-based centers. Howard’s game is based around overwhelming opponents at the point of attack, something he can’t do to Collins. In the first round of the 2011 playoffs, Collins played a crucial role in the Hawks upset of the Magic, as he could defend Howard in the post without a double team. Howard still averaged 27 points and 15 rebounds, but since he wasn’t drawing double teams, Atlanta was able to shut down his extremely limited supporting cast.

The Hawks kept Collins on their roster to match-up with Howard, but there are easier ways to defend a low post scorer in the modern NBA. Without the illegal defense rule, almost every team has copied Tom Thibodeau’s “flood the zone” schemes to defend great big men. In this year’s playoffs, the Spurs used Matt Bonner on Howard for stretches, sending help and forcing the Lakers perimeter players to beat them over the top. Despite his defensive limitations, Bonner was more valuable than a true center because he could stretch the Lakers defense. In contrast, L.A. would have completely ignored a player like Collins.

With floor spacing at a premium, it’s become nearly impossible to hide a player who can’t score. Centers don’t necessarily have to be great jump-shooters, but they have to at least be a threat rolling to the basket in the pick-and-roll game. Tyson Chandler, a long and lean 7’1 240 center with great hands and finishing ability, is the prototype for the modern interior defender. He shot 64 percent from the floor this season; Collins shot 48 percent. Teams without a conventional center, like the Mavericks, have had more success using a small-ball center like Brandan Wright, a 6’10 210 stringbean, than a bigger and more limited player.

The other argument for keeping Collins around is his presence in the locker room. As Jason Kidd told the New York Times: “[Collins] is a guy that can help and he’s a veteran guy. In this league, you need veteran guys.”

Of course, a 19-year NBA veteran is hardly a disinterested observer when it comes to the value of NBA experience. Not only does having a lot of aging players affect a team’s depth, but there’s a large opportunity cost in terms of forgoing the chance to develop young players. Collins doesn’t have more experience than Erick Dampier, who didn’t cover himself in glory as a 35-year-old center in Miami.

The casual fan may not care who the 12th man is, but every roster spot in the NBA, and the guaranteed contract that comes with it, is incredibly valuable. With so many talented basketball players in the world, why miss out on the next Patrick Beverley to keep a guy who can’t help you win? While Collins has had a fine career, his style of play is no longer useful to an NBA team. Ironically enough, for as progressive as he may be off the court, he’s an anachronism on it. As a cultural figure, Collins has been a long time coming, but as a player, he was born a few decades too late.