Feb 15, 2007 12:50 pm US/Central
NBA Pulls Hardaway Appearances After Gay Remarks
MIAMI (CBS) ―
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Retired NBA player Tim Hardaway said that many players believe as he does but don't say so out of political correctness. (File)
CBS
Retired Miami Heat guard Tim Hardaway has reportedly been removed from any future NBA-related appearances after saying that he hates gay people.
He later insisted that he regretted the remarks.
"You know, I hate gay people, so I let it be known. I don't like gay people and I don't like to be around gay people," he said while a guest on Sports Talk 790 The Ticket. "I'm homophobic. I don't like it. It shouldn't be in the world or in the United States."
The discussion was sparked by last week's announcement that retired NBA center John Amaechi is gay.
The host asked Hardaway how he would interact with a gay teammate.
"First of all, I wouldn't want him on my team. And second of all, if he was on my team, I would, you know, really distance myself from him because, uh, I don't think that is right. I don't think he should be in the locker room while we are in the locker room."
If he did find out that a teammate was gay, Hardaway said he would ask for the player to be removed from the team.
"Something has to give," Hardaway said. "If you have 12 other ballplayers in your locker room that's upset and can't concentrate and always worried about him in the locker room or on the court or whatever, it's going to be hard for your teammates to win and accept him as a teammate."
Amaechi also detailed his life, in his autobiography "Man in the Middle," which was released Wednesday. He hoped his coming out would be a catalyst for intelligent discourse.
"I'm actually tempted to laugh," Amaechi told The Miami Herald. "Finally, someone who is honest. It is ridiculous, absurd, petty, bigoted and shows a lack of empathy that is gargantuan and unfathomable. But it is honest. And it illustrates the problem better than any of the fuzzy language other people have used so far."
Hardaway spoke at length Wednesday with Miami CBS station WFOR-TV's sports director, Jim Berry, who asked Hardaway to explain his comments made earlier in the day on the radio.
Hardaway, speaking by telephone from Las vegas, reasserted to Berry that he believes homosexuality is wrong and that he wouldn't like playing with a gay teammate. He also said that his comments were not really that controversial. He said that many players believe as he does, but don't say so out of political correctness.
Berry asked if Hardaway would feel the same way if he discovered that a family member is gay. Hardaway answered with an abrupt 'yes.'
However, Hardaway later apologized for the remarks during a telephone interview with a Miami television station.
"Yes, I regret it. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said I hate gay people or anything like that," he said. "That was my mistake."
"It is inappropriate for him to be representing us given the disparity between his views and ours," NBA commissioner David Stern said in a statement to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
Hardaway played for the Golden State Warriors, the Miami Heat, the Dallas Mavericks, the Denver Nuggets and the Indiana Pacers during his NBA career, which ran from 1989 through the 2002-2003 season.
(© 2007 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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