When Tim Hardaway Sr. made crude homophobic remarks and later had to publicly apologize for it: "I hate gay people, so I let it be known"
In 2007, Tim Hardaway Sr. shockingly made some anti-gay comments that caused him to receive a ton of flak. He was ripped for his insensitive words not just by the basketball community but also by sports fans in general.
Hardaway was already four years into his retirement when he spoke to Dan LeBatard on “790 The Ticket” about his views on gay people:
"You know, I hate gay people, so I let it be known. I don't like gay people and I don't like to be around gay people. I am homophobic. I don't like it. It shouldn't be in the world or in the United States."
Tim Hardaway caused even more controversy when asked to comment about John Amaechi, a former NBA player who admitted he was gay. He said:
"First of all, I wouldn't want him on my team. And second of all, if he was on my team, I would, you know, really distance myself from him because, uh, I don't think that's right.
"And you know I don't think he should be in the locker room while we're in the locker room. I wouldn't even be a part of that."
Amaechi revealed he was gay a week before Hardaway’s fiery comments.
The former NBA point guard suddenly softened his tone a week later. He publicly apologized for his anti-homophobic stance:
In 2022, Tim Hardaway explained via the San Francisco Chronicle why he made those incredibly hurtful comments:
"I grew up in a church, and that's the way churches were -- they instilled in you that [homosexuality] wasn't the way you should be. I was just taught differently.
"Don't talk to them, don't mess with them, leave them alone. I never tried to talk bad about them or do hateful stuff. It was just my upbringing in church.
"But I'll tell you this: It was so wrong of me, and people have suffered. I had to grow up and really do some soul-searching. What I said was just hurtful."
Tim Hardaway was convinced he wasn’t selected earlier to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame because of his anti-gay comments in 2007
An NBA player is eligible to be selected for the Hall of Fame if he is four years into his retirement. Tim Hardaway Sr. retired following the 2002-03 season. Most basketball fans and players thought he would be a shoo-in for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
His comments about gay people, however, may have put an asterisk on his name that kept voters from enshrining him in the Hall of Fame.
"I’m not in the Hall of Fame because of what I said about gay people. That's why I'm not in right now, and I understand it. I hurt a lot of people's feelings and it came off the wrong way and it was really bad of me to say that.
"Since then, I've turned a wrong into a right. My parents used to always tell me, 'If you do something wrong, look it in the eye. Don't back down from it and be scared of it. Go make it right and make people understand that you made a mistake.'"
Tim Hardaway is about to be enshrined in basketball's Hall of Fame. An interview 15 years ago, though, still hangs over his legacy.
“It was so wrong of me, and people have suffered. I had to grow up and really do some soul-searching."
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Four years after his retirement, Tim Hardaway Sr. was almost always a finalist. And yet, it wasn’t until 2022 that his lifelong dream became a reality.
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