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 ...
Now if he only ranted against Christians ........
And so it begins.....
I have 2 weeks worth of popcorn for this story.
How sanctimonious will the sports media be? Stay tuned.
What you just said is completely accurate.
If Hardaway's spiel had been against Christians, it would have been ignored.
R.I.P.
LOL
Therapy, just like the Grey's Anatomy dude!
If you require ky, vaseline, or crisco, you aren't a man, you're an abomination.
Exactly, he will treated like John Rocker and sent for Stalinist like reeducation. The Dims come together and savage you if you DARE criticize any group that vote a high percentag Dim.
Tim Hardaway is free to state is opinion on any subject. The NBA is free to drop him as a commentator.
Anything for a buck, including forfeiture of all decency and selling one's mother down-the-river. Pro sports are full of greedy sob's.
--Did you hear that? The big bang? The one that marked the death of the First Amendment? --
This is not a first amendment issue.
This was the first story that was on the Big Story w/ Gibson today on fox. Switching from Anna Nicole coverage to Hardaway coverage is not helping
The sports media so desperately wants to be seen as real media, they are the most PC now. Of course they are not real media [and I am a big sports fan], but rather they are flacks encouraging you to watch the local team or whatever game is on their station.
Now, Hardaway should have known this was coming.
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