Posted on 02/15/2007 2:27:25 PM PST by meg88
The NBA today removed Tim Hardaway from its All-Star weekend activities, a day after he said, ''I hate gay people'' in a radio interview with a Miami Herald sports columnist.
''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 issued by the league.
Hardaway issued an apology several hours after making the comments on The Dan LeBatard Show on 790 The Ticket. ''Yes, I regret it,'' he told WSVN-Channel 7. ``I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said I hate gay people or anything like that.''
Members of gay organizations reacted swiftly to Hardaway's comments.
''Obviously, I'm disappointed in Tim Hardaway being that Tim Hardaway was one of my favorite basketball players,'' said Donnell Morris, managing director of Black Gay Pride of South Florida. ``It creates a hostile environment for any player contemplating coming out of the closet.''
He added: ``For Tim to be a person from Miami where there has always been a diverse community, he should have been more sensitive to his environment. . . . I've always looked up to Tim as a leader. For him to take a stance that way really hurts me.''
Steve Adkins, president of the Miami-Dade Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, said Hardaway's apology makes no difference. 'It is a very simple process to say `no' or 'I'd rather not comment' than to go on the record and make malicious and bigoted statements,'' Adkins said.
``. . . Let's just say I'm very disappointed that if someone in this day and age has these kinds of feelings, they're not intelligent enough to keep them to themselves. Beyond that, there is no place in our society for that kind of hatred and bigotry. End of story.''
(Excerpt) Read more at miami.com ...
Its off to the PC re-education camp for Mr. Hardaway.
I agree with you, however, why does a person expressing their own opinion, as a person, mean you have to pay a price? How many people going to NBA games would go if they thought the NBA was a gay friendly venue? All this guy did was to be honest, so what? All people in the group may or may not share his views. I don't disagree with you, I am just saying, why is it so? Just thought food. What effects this idea that there has to be any punishment at all? Who decides this and why?
Tim Hardaway is retired, and no doubt a millionaire. He can say what he wants. 99% of NBA players probably agree with him. Hell! 99% of straight men probably don't like gays. Were just supposed to keep quiet.. Shhhhh...
Where do you think it is on the Rocker Scale?
"If you require ky, vaseline, or crisco, you aren't a man, you're an abomination."
A bumper sticker just waiting to happen..
The sports media are leftists for the most part. This is to be expected.
I hate being around gay people!
What's wrong with that?
Are there any straight guys who don't feel uncomfortable around gay guys who look at them as potential dates?
" They never seem to have an answer when I ask them if that means pedophiles can't choose who they love either."
What answer were you lookin for? What we love isn't particularly within out conscious control.
If he went into a shopping mall and gunned down 5-10 white heterosexual Christians the MSM would consider it a big yawn..... the DBM is already deep-sixing the story of the Bosnian Muslim who just shot up the mall in Utah, without even bothering to aggressively investigate. But an NBA player makes a nasty remark against one of the PC-favored groups and it's treated as worse than mass-murder.
He has every right to an opinion at variance with what the NBA marketing team would like.
I used to watch it regularly once upon a time, about 8 or 10 years ago it turned into the "racism reporters" and I can't stand it anymore.
That, and they pontificate waaay too much on golf and tennis. And horse racing.
I may be crazy to think this, but I have this hunch that the Hardaway thing is a hoax. Somehow this is about money and publicity, maybe for John Amechie's (sp?) book, maybe for something else. Maybe a stunt to "raise consciousness." I don't know, but I have a hard time believeing that Hardaway would just pop off like that for no good reason.
refreshingly honest personal comment.Too bad he apologized.
I heard it live, he said it, he is paying the consequences, this is not a hoax. Hate is a strong word, had he said i really don't like them, it would have been different.
I had just posted these comments to a thread I was on last night. Looks like the NBA wants to make an example of Hardaway.
I tuned into my local sports station today and it was open season on Tim Hardaway on DC's "The John Thompson Show".
What was most amazing is that almost all of the callers who phoned in did so to speak up for Hardaway and his point of view. I'd say that a majority of them were African-American and more than a few began their calls by proclaiming their faith in Jesus Christ, and while they felt that Hardaway may have made a poor choice of words (hate), many supported his point of view that homosexuality was simply wrong or unnatural.
Coach Thompson and his staff took the callers to task in a number of ways; firstly focusing the entire issue on Hardaway's quote, while not addressing the cause of the discussion - the Ameachi book - he also turned the old trick of asking if Jesus hated homosexuals and disingenuously asking where it was stated in the Bible that homosexuality was wrong. Finally, Coach Thompson turned the topic into a civil rights issue, with his sideman comparing people who were not accepting of homosexuality to Nazis in the holocaust.
It was tiresome to listen to. Thompson missed the whole point of the callers being fed-up and frustrated with homosexual advocacy. I don't think this was incidental though. I felt that he and his show mates were simply carrying water for the PC police
I heard it too. The words seemed so absurd, like they were phony. How do you say you hate gay people, then wrap it up by calling your self a "homophobe?" There just seems something "not right" here.
Don't ask me why I watch the Paula Zahn "discussion" segments, where a "GOP consultant" praises the NBA homo for coming out.
If that's the case Stevie, I'd just tell you to f**k off then if I was Hardaway, but that's just me.
Go to www.wiod.com and vote in Tim's favor on the radio station's poll taking!!!
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