Hardaway Apologizes; Amaechi Appreciates the Honesty

Tim Hardaway, shown to the right about to get it on with NBA official Bennett Salvatore, has issued an apology for saying he hates gay people. The apology is as brief as it is meaningless. Check it out:

"Yes, I regret it. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said I hate gay people, or anything like that. That was my mistake."

So he's sorry not for what he said, but he's sorry he said it. And I don't doubt that that's true, Hardaway probably does regret it after seeing what an uproar it caused. I'm sure he wishes he could have those few minutes of his life back.

One guy who wouldn't want him to take it back, though, is John Amaechi, the gay former NBA'er who inspired Hardaway's bile. Here's what Amaechi said to Den Le Batard, who conducted the interview with Hardaway.

'I'm actually tempted to laugh,'' Amaechi said Wednesday. ``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.''

It seems like Amaehi feels that Hardaway's comments are a little more representative of the norm in the NBA than anything else that's been out there so far. Hardaway says he believes his comments represent a majority of the NBA, and I hope that's not true.

In fact, I don't think it is true, I think NBA players deserve a little more credit than that. The NBA might not be a bastion of progressive thinkers, but it's not a group of hateful people. There might be a lot of guys who are uncomfortable with homosexuality, just as there are a ton of people like that in all of society. But there's a difference between that and outright hatred, and I'd like to think that most NBA players stop short of Hardaway's hostility.

See Also:
Tim Hardaway Loves to Stay at the YMCA
Tim Hardaway Did Not Spend Valentine's Day With a Dude