0 >> that's all for us tonight. "anderson cooper" starts right now. female dna found on the bomb parts and the fda takes samples from the suspects when all. a groundbreaking day in u.s. sports. jason collins became the first active player on an american team sport to come out publicly. the free agent made the announcement in an essay for "sports illustrated," he took this step on his own and made and is more extraordinary. several athletes might cannot at the same time, a scenario that would have taken pressure off any single athlete. that is not how this happened. >> jason collins has played in 12 nba seasons for teams in new jersey, minnesota, atlanta, boston and washington. it is not the stats people will remember, whether these two sentences. i am a 34-year-old nba center. i am black and i am gay. collins is the first gay athlete currently planning a one of the top four u.s. major league sports to come out. in an essay in "sports illustrated" magazine he writes out captain a secret for decades, even getting engaged at one point. he answers the question why now. he has simply been tired of living a lie. with u.s. supreme court debating the issue of gay marriage she says it was time to come forth. i wish i was not the kid in the classroom raising his hand and sang 9 different. if i had my way someone else would have already done this. nobody has, which is why i am raising my hand. collins but we go agent approached "sports illustrated" about publishing a story. >> no doubt there will be others. how many i could not say. would not be surprised at all before the end of the calendar year we see several athletes come out because even before we heard about the possibility of speaking with him, we knew this day was coming. >> he is a free agent and has been playing with the washington wizards. the team president and out this statement. we are extremely proud of jason to support his decision to live his life crowley and openly. the accolades continued. kobe bryant said proud of jason collets. don't suffocate you are because of the ignorance of others. president bill clinton went to school with jason collins, he tweeted i am proud to call jason collins a friend and world famous tennis player martina never thomas said this. referencing are wrong coming out. well done, you are a brave man and a big man at that. 1981 was the year for me, 2013 is the year for you. >> with each player that comes out there will be less of a big deal which is exactly what we wanted. >> the white house was asked to william. >> we view that as another example of the progress that has been made in the evolution that has been taking place in this country. >> it is a watershed moment but what happens next for his career and how we will be treated by others away from the public eye is not known. his former coach, boston celtics doc rivers compares this moment to jackie robinson. number 42, breaking down another sports barrier. rivers tweeting if you have learned anything from jackie robinson, is that teammates are always the first to accept it will be society has to learn tolerance. >> nba commissioner david stern also commanded jason collins today. the nba players association extended its support and he has been getting a lot of attention. joining us tonight charles barkley and kenny smith. also with us on the phone, he played with collins last season for the wizards. or you surprised by this? what was your reaction? >> the first thing i was happy for jason because people should get to be who want to be. but a player in the nba, anyone the things they have not played with a gay player is an idiot. i have played with gay players and they should get to be is a want to be. >> i know you've got a call before the article came out. what did he say to you? >> he basically told me that an article was coming out and he wanted to tell me that he was gay before it came out. >> what was your reaction. ! my immediate reaction was that i felt for him. holding that secret, i was glad he got off his chest. >> why you think it has taken so long for someone in one of the four major sports to come out? >> i think first of all, the question about his sexuality is not often asked of most people and i am always surprised to see that people think the percentage of people in the world who are anything from being straight, gay, criminals, great people, immune to sports. everyone is dealing with society, it is not like we are on the island, sports figures on an island. we are part of that community. that surprises me. lastly for me i learned early as an african-american young man that inclusion is one thing i will always be a part of. anytime anyone wants to be included in a group, welcome. >> charles, do you think the fans are ready for this? do you think the sport is ready for this? >> you know, i think your question is great because doc rivers said something today, i think he's going to be at peace in the locker room. i think we as jocks have gotten a bad rap for a lot of years. i've heard all these talking heads for the last few years talking about these guys will be uncomfortable in the locker room. first of all, they're going to be safe in the locker room. we've all played with gay guys. we're going to welcome them with open arms. i think society is more homophobic than teams in locker rooms. the thing that's going to be interesting to me, i think it's all right for guys to disagree or say they don't like gay people. that to me is going to be the great debate. i've been pro gay marriage for a long time. but right now, if anybody comes out and says they don't -- they are uncomfortable with a gay teammate, they're going to get crucified. i think that's unfair. i think this is going to open up a great debate. hopefully some more guys will come out, if they want to be free, they deserve to be free, but i think that's got to be the interruption dynamic of this whole thing, anderson, because obviou uncomfortable around gay people and they should be able to say that without getting crucified. >> it's interesting, you know, this guy from espn reporter, chris broussard said earlier, the comments he made made headlines. i want to play this for our viewers. >> i'm a christian. i don't agree with homosexuality. i think it's a sin. as i think all sex outside of marriage between a man and a woman is. in talking to some people around the league, there are a lost christians in the nba, and they don't want to be, just because they disagree with that lifestyle, they don't want to be viewed and called bigotted and intolerant. >> he was taking issue with jason for saying he was a christian and gay man. you're saying people should have the right to say what they want to say. >> you know, there are some quote unquote, christians are going to feel like that. and that's their prerogative. i just happen to disagree with them. i don't know chris that well. seems like a nice guy. but if that's his religious belief, it's not up to me to agree or disagree. well, let me rephrase that. i disagree with that. if somebody wants to be gay, that's their own business. >> i think also, charles, if you look at it, anderson as well, you're in the locker room with a lot of people who don't have christian views, and they don't do things in a christian-like manner. so because they don't do that, you can't have them on your team, you can't have them in your organization, i think all of those things have to be thought about, because there are a lot of people on nba teams who have sex outside of their marriage, who are not doing the correct things and criminal activity and there are certain things they might not do, so are you going to ban those as well because of your religious beliefs. that's what i'm not taught. >> interesting, we were talking about the locker room. charles says he thinks people are actually going to be accepting but there's that rutgers basketball coach who was yelling anti-gay slurs at players on his own team and seemed to be doing it very publicly and for awhile, nobody seemed to say anything about it. do you agree with charles that folks on the team -- on teams are ready, that the fans are ready? >> i think people on the team and the fans, it's a different time. 10, 15 years in the past, i think we are having a different conversation. times are more progressive, minds are more open and i think the nba is ready for openly gay athletes. >> charles, jason's a free agent now. hoping to obviously get picked up by another team. you think this could affect his chances? >> let me say two things first. first of all, i think it's an insult to gay people to think they are going to be looking at their teammates. that was one of the first things you always hear. i think that is such an insult to gay people, any player, to say oh, he's going to be looking at his teammates in a sexual way. 's an sult to gay people. you know, jason's case is a little different because he's obviously on the down side of his career. i don't know if he would have been re-signed anyway. so i think it's a little unfair to judge the nba, he averaged a couple points a game this year. he's been in the league a long time. to say just because we're in the nba, don't re-sign him, that we're being homophobic, i think that's a little unfair. >> fair enough. it's a great conversation to have. thank you so much, charles, kenny, emeka. thanks. >> thanks for having us. >> all right. thank you. >> thank you. let's continue the conversation on twitter. follow me, @anderson cooper. next, breaking news. female dna found on the boston marathon bomb parts. dna taken from the home of the dead suspect's widow today as well. the question is, is there a connection and could there be multiple reasons for female dna being found on these bomb parts other than the obvious one. we have all the latest on that. plus the man some relatives say turned the suspects toward radical islam. that misha character we have heard so much about. well, he has been revealed. we'll tell you the details that we know when we continue.