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 ...
Exactly, it is merely a problem of those who disagree with speaker, demonstrating their lack of tolerance for diverse viewpoints, that is viewpoints and opinions that are different than their own.
"This is not a first amendment issue."
Not yet.
Tim Hardaway should start "Homophobic Clubs of America". He could have a lifetime career.
I guess ya gotta be a real piece of crap if you don't love gays.
Yes, and they don't get any more sanctimonious than the sports media. Of all media, they are generally seem to be the least qualified, least relevant, and most moralistic (and probably the least athletic, by no coincidence).
Exactly. Speech today thats politically incorrect is hate speech tomorrow.
I would have liked to see a bunch of players come out and agree with him and force the hand of the PC crowd. That would be popcorn worthy.
Funny, use to be that queers kept their deviant behavior to themselves. Now those of us who disapprove of this abominable behavior are the ones who aren't "intelligent enough to keep them to themselves"?
"girls will be boys
and boys will be girls,
it's a mixed up, muddled up,
shook up world."
Only a matter of time until he is sentenced to the gulag for political correctness.
Remind me to write an article on the compulsive reading of news.
The theme will be that most neuroses can be traced to the unhealthy habit of wallowing in the troubles of five billion strangers.
Robert A. Heinlein
The United States has become a place where entertainers and professional athletes are mistaken for people of importance.
Robert A. Heinlein
Only government can violate the First Amendment.
He had the right to say what he said, and the NBA had the right to rebuke him. Just like the Dixie Chicks had a right to diss the Prez on foreign soil and we had the right to boycott them over here. If I said what Hardaway said at my workplace I know I'd get rebuked.
The love that dare not speak it's name, has now become the love that won't STFU.
Ha! his name is french for "Dan the Bastard".
And all corporations and public institutions are afraid of them. Amazing. Goodbye nba for me(no great loss.)
In the interest of deflating the hyberbole balloon just a little, let me remind you that the first five words of the First Amendment are "Congress shall make no law" and not "NBA shall make no policy".
Timmy is a Moron.
In addition to everything else, he was a terrible color commentator.
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