"First of all I wouldn't want him on my team," said Hardaway. "Second of all, if he was on my team I would really distance myself from him because I don't think that's right and I don't think he should be in the locker room when we're in the locker room."
Le Batard took Hardaway to task, pointing out that his comments were "flatly homophobic" and bigoted, but that only seemed to stir up the former point guard.
"Well, you know, I hate gay people," Hardaway said in response to Le Batard. "I let it be known I don't like gay people. I don't like to be around gay people. I'm homophobic. It shouldn't be in the world, in the United States, I don't like it."
I'm too young to remember Run TMC's heyday, but I do remember Hardaway himself quite fondly as a Warrior, and I always thought he seemed like a thoughtful, reasonable individual. Turns out I was wrong. I normally don't try to judge people, but that line of thought is so backward and archaic that it's hard to come to terms with. I mean there's Tim Hardaway, one of my favorite athletes of my early youth, spouting off that he straight up, no holds barred, hates gay people. If that's anywhere near a common line of thought among players in the NBA, no wonder Amaechi took so long to come out, and no wonder nobody's done it while they've been playing.
I mean, I'm not gay myself, and I'm gonna get all high and mighty and pretend I'm totally 100% okay with it and that I don't get uneasy thinking about it, but I mean come the fuck on. I'm not gonna tell gay people what they can and cannot do, and I'm certainly not going to have some irrational hate of them for it. It's the kind of line of thought like Hardaway's, the unabashed, unashamed, hatred of a set group of people, that is very very dangerous and disturbing.
definitely, definitely not gay
2 comments:
Sadly, that's not just a common line of thought in the NBA, it's a common line of thought among people in general.
Interesting to know.
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