Former NBA Star Tim Hardaway: "I Don't Like Gay People"

The former guard for the Miami Heat, Tim Hardaway, was a guest Wednesday on Dan Le Batard’s talk radio show. At the end of the interview, Le Batard asked Hardaway what he would do if he had to play basketball with a gay player on his team. The question came on the heels of last week’s disclosure by retired NBA center John Amaechi that he is gay.

Hardaway’s response was unequivocal. "I don’t like gay people and I don’t like to be around gay people," he said. "I am homophobic. I don’t like it. It shouldn’t be in the world or in the United States." Hardaway continued that he wouldn’t want to be on a team with a gay player, and if he had to be, he would distance himself. "I don't think that is right," Hardaway said. "I don't think he should be in the locker room while we are in the locker room. But stuff like that is going on and there's a lot of other people I hear that are like that and still in the closet and don't want to come out of the closet, but you know I just leave that alone.''

If he learned that a teammate was gay, Hardaway said, he would request that the player be traded or have his contract bought out. ''Something has to give,'' he said. "And I think the majority of players would ask for him to be traded or they would want to be traded. Or buy him out of his contract and just let him go. Something has to give. If you have 12 other ballplayers in your locker room that are upset and can't concentrate and always worried about him in the locker room or on the court it's going to be hard for your teammates to win and accept him as a teammate.''

Amaechi, who released his autobiography, Man in the Middle, on Wednesday, hoped that by divulging his sexual preference he would open a dialogue for intelligent discourse about the issue. When he learned of Hardaway’s comments, he told the Miami Herald, "I’m actually tempted to laugh. 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."

Since Amaechi’s announcement to the world that he is gay, many media outlets have asked other players and coaches what they thought of his statement. Most of them, including Miami Heat center Shaquille O’Neal, have shown support and said that having a gay teammate would not bother them.

Amaechi told the Associated Press that anti-gay comments by another retired player just "demonstrate the need to continue the conversation." In a phone interview Thursday, Amaechi said, "I don’t need Tim’s comments to realize there’s a problem. People said that I should just shut up and go away—now they have to rethink that. His words…create an atmosphere that allows young gays and lesbians to be harassed in school, creates an atmosphere where in 33 states you can lose your job, and where anti-gay and lesbian issues are used for political gain. It's an atmosphere that hurts all of us, not just gay people."

Later, during a telephone interview with WSVN in Miami, Hardaway apologized for his remarks. "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." And a big mistake it may prove to be; according to some reports, Hardaway has been removed from making any further appearances on behalf of the league.

NBA Commissioner David Stern gave a statement to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel about the controversy. "It is inappropriate for him to be representing us given the disparity between his views and ours," Stern said.