Former NBA player Jason Collins has Stage 4 glioblastoma. Collins — who in 2013 became the first openly gay active player in a men’s North American sports league — revealed his diagnosisto ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne.
Collins’ diagnosis comes months after his family announced he was dealing with a brain tumor. They did not provide additional details at the time, asking for “support and prayers.”
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Collins, 47, explained that his family intentionally put out a vague statement, as it wanted to protect his privacy while he was “mentally unable to speak for myself.” Collins said he first started experiencing symptoms in the summer, but tried to fight through them at first. But things came to a head in August, when Collins couldn’t focus enough to pack for a trip to the US Open with his husband.
After undergoing a CT scan, it was determined Collins had Stage 4 glioblastoma. Given the shape of his cancer, it could not be fully removed without Collins coming out of surgery “different,” he told ESPN.
Since his tumor can’t be operated on, Collins said the standard prognosis is “only 11 to 14 months.”
“Because my tumor is unresectable, going solely with the ‘standard of care’ — radiation and TMZ — the average prognosis is only 11 to 14 months. If that’s all the time I have left, I’d rather spend it trying a course of treatment that might one day be a new standard of care for everyone.”
He vowed to seek out new, inventive treatment methods in the hopes that he can find something that helps him, or helps the next person diagnosed with Stage 4 glioblastoma. Due to his NBA career, Collins said money was not an issue and that he’s willing to go anywhere in the world to seek treatment.
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Collins drew parallels to when he decided to come out as gay. In both scenarios, he might be able to help people he’s never met, Collins explained.
“After I came out, someone I really respect told me that my choice to live openly could help someone who I might never meet. I’ve held onto that for years. And if I can do that again now, then that matters.”
Collins was drafted by the Houston Rockets with the No. 18 overall pick in the 2001 NBA Draft. He never played for the franchise, however, as he was traded to the New Jersey Nets. Collins spent a total of 13 seasons in NBA, seeing time with six different franchises.
The majority of his time came with the Nets, which he later joined during his final NBA season. He saw time in 22 games during the 2013-14 season, averaging 7.8 minutes per game in Brooklyn. At the end of the season, Collins announced his retirement from the NBA.
Basketball
Athletics
Lyles won the 100m gold medal at the 2024 Paris Games and is also a four-time 200m world champion.
Now-retired Powell is pleased that the rivalry on the track between Jamaica and Lyles’ US has brought the countries together in a time of need.
“We are trying to give back everywhere we can.” Powell said on the help he and Lyles are providing.
“Last week, I gave two houses [to families in need]. They were very happy and that made me feel overwhelmed with joy. My wife actually cried and the families cried when they received the house.
“One family had four kids and one had three kids so I can imagine how happy they are to have a home.
“Whenever I am on the track competing, these are the people who have been cheering me on and feeling proud of me. To give something back makes me feel very proud and makes me want to do a lot more.”
Powell has called for the “big organisations” to carry on with their help of Jamaica and not move on when the attention from the disaster has gone.
“I am going to keep helping every month, they should stay in it for the long run and make sure everyone is back in their home,” he added.
“There is a lot more going on in the world and every minute I see a different flood or natural disaster. There is a lot to do and a lot of people to help but I hope the best for my country.”
Golf
For the first time in years, two Kordas are back in action on the LPGA Tour.
Six-time LPGA Tour winner Jessica Korda is teeing it up at this week’s Grant Thornton Invitational in Naples, Fla., joining her sister, Nelly Korda, in a field that consists of 16 PGA Tour players and 16 LPGA members. The two-person teams compete in three different formats and for a $4 million purse Friday to Sunday at Tiburon Golf Club.
Jessica Korda, who at 32 is five years older than her sister, is making her first start since May 2023, when she withdrew following the first round of the Founders Cup due to injury. She took time to rehabilitate her back and then gave birth to her son, Greyson, in February 2024.
Now she’s teamed up with Bud Cauley in her return. She said she asked Cauley, a longtime friend, if he wanted to team up with her in this event about four months ago. Since then she’s slowly tried to get back into golf shape for this event and more — although she said her return wouldn’t be full time — by building up her stamina and playing more rounds.
“I’m still taking it very much slowly because if I were to come back out on tour, it wouldn’t be until mid-March, so I have plenty of time,” she said Wednesday at Tiburon. “It was more just the buildup to this event and we’ll see what we need to work on going forward. But I can’t kind of make a tournament out at home because we’ll never get those competitive juices. Playing with the guys definitely makes me a little bit nervous, which is fun, and like I said, it’s just been a lot of fun to be out there. I feel like myself and it’s a little bit of a break from being a mom and wiping butts.”
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Interestingly, Cauley is also familiar with returning to golf after a long layoff. He was in a serious car accident in 2018, missed several months and faced starts and stops in the years that followed.
“We have spoke about it a little bit, but really the only thing you can do is get out there and get your feet wet again.,” Cauley said. “Obviously I know she’s been putting in a lot of time at home to prepare and get ready. When we have talked about it, I guess I’m not very much help because really there’s no substitute just for coming back out playing, competing and going out there and trying to shoot a score.”
Friday’s format is a scramble, Saturday is alternate shot and Sunday’s final round will be a modified four-ball.
Cauley and Jessica Korda, along with Nelly Korda and her partner Denny McCarthy, played a practice round together on Tuesday.
“[Jessica’s] been out a couple times here and there and throughout the years, but I’m excited for her to tee it up this week and to kind of feel the nerves back,” Nelly Korda said. “It’s going to be a fun week. It’s always so nice to have family around. I hope she just has fun and keeps it kind of light.”
Last year, Jessica Korda had a spot in the booth during the Grant Thornton telecast. That, plus other random broadcasting gigs over the years, made her miss playing even more.
“When we were kind of talking about what I could possibly test my body out in, this was almost a no-brainer,” she said. “So yeah, I love this event. I loved the idea of it when it was first brought to us. And then just being behind the scenes of it and seeing how much fun everybody had, I felt like I had major FOMO, so I needed to play.”
The first round of the Grant Thornton will be broadcast 1-4 p.m. ET on Friday on Golf Channel. Jessica Korda and Cauley are paired with Rose Zhang and Michael Kim and tee off at 9:30 a.m.
How about thisfor the “Great Rebundling”?
On Wednesday morning, YouTube TV announced that it would introduce a sports-specific cable package, allowing consumers to cut back on cable costs while still receiving the sports programming at the center of those packages.
According to YouTube, the new package will be offered to customers at a cost below the company’s current “base plan” price of $82.99 — though the exact price has not been disclosed. The sports package will be debuted in “early 2026,” and will provide access to broadcast channels (ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC) andcable networks showcasing sports programming (ESPN networks, Fox Sports, NBC Sports Network, and USA Sports/Golf Channel).
The new sports bundle will be part of plans to bring 10 “genre-specific packages” to consumers in the new year. The sports bundle comes after years of crowing from sports fans in support of such an endeavor — and follows years of complaints from consumers who felt they were paying for cable channels they did not consume.
The announcement follows a bruising fall for YouTube TV that saw the cable provider lose a handful of NFL and college football games — and a chunk of its business — to a protracted “carriage fight” with ESPN and Disney. At the conclusion of that battle, YouTube TV vowed to work to win back customer trust, and the genre-specific packages appear to be the first effort to those ends.
The economics of cable TV have long made a sports-specific “bundle” a difficult proposition. Sports networks like ESPN cost a fortune for cable providers like YouTube TV (nearly $10 per month, per customer, according to the most recent estimates) and ESPN’s owners at Disney have been keen to ensure that cable providers include allDisney programming under one package, making it hard for providers to siphon off smaller, genre-specific portions of programming.
In many ways, however, the rigidity of the traditional cable structure contributed to the format’s decline, as larger and larger audiences continued to “cut the cord” in favor of sports-specific, piecemeal solutions that proved cheaper than a traditional cable bill.
For golf fans, the new YouTube TV bundle offers an all-access pass to golf programming, providing coverage of LIV Golf, the PGA Tour, and each of the major championships under agreements with NBC, CBS, ESPN, Golf Channel, USA, and Fox.
For those TV customers who are “single-issue” viewers — in other words, those who watch only sports programming — the news is good: The same TV access will be available in the next few months … and it’ll cost less for you to watch.
With the pro golf offseason in full swing and the year accelerating to its end, the LIV golf rumor mill is running hot. As is sometimes the case, reports have circulated incorrectly identifying PGA Tour players who are moving to LIV Golf for 2026.
One such report made the rounds on Wednesday, alleging a two-time PGA Tour-winning South Korean pro was preparing to leave for LIV. But on Wednesday night, that player, Sungjae Im, shut down those rumors with two simple words on social media.
Here’s what you need to know.
Sungjae Im’s resume makes him attractive to PGA Tour, LIV
After starting his career on the Japan Golf Tour, Im won Korn Ferry Tour Player of the Year in 2018 (then known as the Web.com Tour) to graduate to the big leagues.
And he didn’t waste time making an impact. Im quickly won Rookie of the Year honors in the 2018-19 season, then added victories at the 2020 Honda Classic and 2021 Shriners Children’s Open.
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Still only 27 years old, Im made 20 of 28 cuts in the 2025 PGA Tour season, collecting nine top-25 finishes and three top 10s, including a T5 at the 2025 Masters. He finished the season at 27th in the FedEx Cup standings.
In addition to the wins, Im has accumulated 48 top 10s and 22 top 5s in 209 career starts, earning $34,982,404 on the course for his troubles.
And he’s something of a major threat, even if he hasn’t claimed one yet. In six Masters starts, Im has three top-8 finishes, including a T2 in 2020. He added a T7 at the 2024 Open Championship.
With that pedigree, Im would clearly be a big get for LIV Golf and a similarly large loss for the PGA Tour were he to switch tours. With LIV Golf keen on expanding their popularity globally, the fact that Im hails from golf-crazed South Korea only makes him more attractive.
But thanks to Im, we now know he’s not going anywhere.
Sungjae Im brands LIV rumors ‘Fake news’
On Wednesday, reports citing anonymous sources claimed Im was readying to ditch the PGA Tour for LIV Golf, along with another South Korean PGA Tour pro.
‘Looking forward to next year’: PGA Tour star announces big LIV decision
By:
Kevin Cunningham
Other journalists, citing their own sources, denied that the reports about Im’s LIV move were true.
That caused Im to take the matter into his own hands.
Later on Wednesday, Im took to his Instagram account and posted a screenshot of the original report. But he added two words and an emoji on top of the screenshot that settled the matter.
“Fake news,” Im wrote, along with a “thumbs down” emoji.
And with those two words, the PGA Tour star confirmed that contrary to reports, he isn’t switching tours and will continue to ply his trade on the PGA Tour.
The incident recalls a similar situation an Australian PGA Tour player found himself in earlier this year.
In November, rumors flew that 27-year-old PGA Tour winner Min Woo Lee was considering a move to LIV Golf.
But in an interview with the Australian Associated Press, Lee ended any speculation by confirming that he was staying on the PGA Tour.
“There’s been a lot of rumors. I’m not going [to LIV Golf] and am just going to play on the PGA Tour,” Lee told the AAP. “So, I’m happy with where I’m at and, yeah, I’m looking forward to next year.”
December 11, 2025 | Paul Stimpson
Senior British Clubs League players and local challengers are being served up high-class competitions to fill the standard ‘blank†in the BCL fixture calendar in January.
Six SBCL club venues around the country are hosting 1* or 2* open tournaments on Sunday 18 January – and entries are now open, both to SBCL players and those based locally to the tournaments.
The initiative arose out of a proposal from players and clubs at the BCL Conference in 2024 to utilise the ‘free Sunday†of the seasonâ€s third weekend of fixtures, when only two rounds of league matches are scheduled on the Saturday.
Singles tournaments on the following Sunday have tended to be limited in previous seasons, and not necessarily in the same parts of the country where players were already gathered – but no longer.
Following the proposal from players and clubs, a consultation with existing and recent former BCL venues evidenced overwhelming general support to host, with 13 of 16 venues expressing interest.
And six of them have now finalised entry forms for competitions this season, all on Sunday 18 January:
- Topspin Nottingham 2*
- Halton 2*
- Ormesby 2*
- Cippenham 2*
- Scarborough 1*
- Highfield TTC Wellingborough 1*
Neil Rogers, Table Tennis England Head of Competition & Events, said: “This exciting synergy provides new and valuable Senior ranking competitions at the appropriate level for national league players already physically in the area – also giving hosts and local players the opportunity for new blood in their tournaments.
“We are delighted with this initiative, and very grateful to the six clubs hosting events in this already record-breaking Senior BCL season.â€
December 10, 2025 | Paul Stimpson
Are YOU ready to take centre stage at the ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships London 2026?
Team London Volunteering is providing volunteers for the Championships and the application process is now open.
This is your chance to be part of the action – as a Team London Ambassador, you’ll be at the heart of the championships, helping to shape the success of every match and creating unforgettable experiences for athletes, officials, coaches and thousands of fans.
From the very first friendly welcome for athletes and fans, to the backstage heroes ensuring smooth operations, fantastic volunteers are the difference between a good championship and the best championship ever!
Table Tennis England is proud to be working with the Mayor of London and Team London Volunteering to deliver a world-class volunteering programme in support of London 2026.
Expressions of Interest to volunteer at the Championships, which runs from 28 April to 1 May at the Copper Box Arena and 2-10 May at OVO Arena Wembley, are now open.
How do I get involved?
If you have not previously registered with Team London Volunteering, please click here to register.
Once you’ve submitted this registration, you’ll be invited to complete your Team London Volunteering profile before submitting your expression of interest for London 2026.
If you already have a Team London Volunteering profile, click here to visit the event page.
Deadline for expression of interest is Wednesday 28 January 2026 23:59.If selected, youâ€ll receive a role offer via email during February and March. Youâ€ll have 14 days to accept your offer, after which it may be offered to someone else. Youâ€ll be invited to attend a mix of mandatory online and in-person training in March and early April.
What are the roles?
Team London Volunteering will be providing more than 300Â volunteers for ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships Finals London 2026. These roles will be located across the city and will play a key part in the successful operation of the event.
Roles will include: Airport Meet & Greet, Hotel Welcome Team, Spectator Services, Media Assistants, Fan Engagement, Accreditation Support, Workforce Support, Field of Play Assistants, and more.
To view the full list of roles available and the role descriptions, please click here.
Volunteer Requirements
Volunteers will need to commit to completing a minimum of six volunteer shifts between 22 April 2026 and 10 May 2026. Shifts will typically last between four and six hours, with morning and afternoon shifts available most days of the event.Â
You will need to be 18 years old or older at the time of application and you must currently have the right to live, work or study in the UK. You must be able to speak and read English or communicate using British Sign Language (BSL). Additional languages are a plus.
If you have any questions or experience any issues completing your expression of interest, please email [email protected] or call 07850 097068 (Monday to Friday, 9am-5pm).
December 10, 2025 | Paul Stimpson
Paul Drinkhall is back in the Senior British Clubs League, Premier Division!
The three-time Olympian will play in this weekendâ€s round of fixtures after signing for Drumchapel Glasgow.
It will be the first time in almost exactly 10 years that Drinkhall has featured in the top domestic division, since he helped Sycamore to win the title in February 2016. He has played for other clubs including Ormesby and Barrow over the years.
“I practice with Aaron McKibbin quite a bit and obviously he plays for Drumchapel,†said Drinkhall, explaining how the move came about.
“I think with only one foreign player allowed, every team started to look into some British players being available and Iâ€m not signed for a club abroad, so I guess I was the obvious target.
“Over the years Iâ€ve played quite a lot, mainly Ormesby in the early years, then round a few different clubs and Iâ€m looking forward to it.
“Whether itâ€s British Clubs League or in another competition, I always enjoy playing at home because you donâ€t get to do it very often, and in a team event as well – so it should be good.â€
Drumchapel are currently bottom of the Premier Division, having lost all four matches on Weekend 1, but with four matches this weekend at BATTS, there are certainly opportunities for them to move up the table – and Drinkhall believes there is not much to choose between the teams across the division.
“Thereâ€s quite a few strong teams out there who if they played each other twice in two days it could be a totally different outcome,†he said.
“Drumchapel are sitting bottom at the moment but a few results and that could change quite quickly – anything is possible and itâ€s going to be an interesting season.â€
The prospect of a match against England colleague David McBeath, who plays for Ormesby, will have to wait as the teams are not scheduled to meet this weekend, but Drinkhall would relish a meeting in future, as well as the opportunity to face some of the England pathway youngsters who are active in the division, such as Isaac Kingham (BATTS) and Larry Trumpauskas (Fusion).
“It would be good to play Dave and some of the youth players Iâ€ve worked with a little bit now and seen a bit more of them,†said Drinkhall, who is also looking forward to the central weekend format, as opposed to the home-and-away format which has been in pace in recent seasons.
“I think thereâ€s pros and cons to both but maybe this way is more accessible and a slightly better atmosphere and possibly you get a slightly higher level because you can bring players in for more than one match at a time,†he said.
Follow all the action this weekend on the BCL social media channels, and look out for details about live-streaming!
The action begins at 10:30am, Saturday 13 December, with one match per round streamed live on the Table Tennis England YouTube channel, full fixtures, results, and tables are available on the official British Club Leagues website.
December 10, 2025 | Paul Stimpson
Preparing for a tournament takes many forms – it is not just a case of getting on the table and hitting as many balls as possible.
For one thing, you have to consider which brand of table and ball will be in use at the tournament, as small differences in how they play can make all the difference in tight situations.
As he becomes England No 1 for the first time in the Table Tennis England monthly rankings (ADD LINK), we caught up with Tom Jarvis and Pathway and Senior Squad Coach John Murphy to find out how important it is to train with the equipment you will be using in competition.
We watch Tom and John working to refine Tomâ€s serves so that he has the confidence to take them into matches, knowing how the match balls and tables will behave.
Itâ€s just one example of the ‘no stone unturned†mentality which has helped Tom to climb towards the top 50 in the world rankings and become the top-ranked English player.
Tom explained: “Playing on different tables and with different balls, you try to figure out how these balls will bounce on this table and where my technique needs to be to make sure I can get it short or long or half-long or kicking whenever I want, and be able to trust that when itâ€s in a close moment.
“You have to take care and know what ball youâ€re playing with and try and prepare with that.â€
John added: “Your timing and action is very important and itâ€s also important to adapt, to learn what the ball is doing and be able to touch the ball in the right place to get the desired outcome.
“Sometimes you need to play long serves, sometimes you need to play short serves, sometimes you need to use the sides of the table. Itâ€s trying to understand the table and the conditions straight away and try to execute your technique when serving.â€