It’s tough to forget what Tim Hardaway said a couple years ago (”I hate gay people“), but he is trying to make amends. This Sunday, the Tim Hardaway Foundation is co-sponsoring a South Beach event for The Trevor Project, which aims to fight suicide among gay teens. That’s great. Hardaway clearly wants to move well past his comments and we should commend that.
My question: Why does he want to move past it? Comments by Hardaway to Steve Rothaus of the Miami Herald today make me scratch my head. First, he towed the Christian company line in talking about accepting gay people:
Gays and lesbians, we don’t have to accept the act, but we have to accept them as people. Especially children, we don’t want them to kill themselves. We want them to live their lives as they want to.
This is how I personally translate that statement: Some old book tells him he isn’t supposed to judge people, so he says he doesn’t. But he really does. He doesn’t like to think about gay sex (or maybe he does). He actually does want to save children, which is great, but it has nothing to do with them being gay.
After his pseudo-positive comment, he takes a sharp right turn off a cliff. While admitting he may have had a gay teammate at some point in his career, he said that athletes have a right to know if one of their teammates is gay. He then says that he would shower either before or after that gay teammate!
We have a right to know. We’d say, `How do you want to do this? Do you want to go into the shower first, or do you want me to go into the shower first?’
What the hell is the hangup with this fool? As I said, he admits he’s probably already showered with gay guys! What is his problem?
His real motivation in “helping” gay people and making gay-positive statements is crystal clear in another quote in the Herald:
The endorsements will never come back. People have taken that and it’s gone. I understand that. I’m trying to look for work and provide for my family. All that stuff has left me high and dry. I have to dig for work.
Ahhhhh. That’s it. He still doesn’t like gay people, he certainly doesn’t approve of us or our “acts,” but because he lost a lot of money when he said he hated us, he’s trying to improve his image. What, the millions and millions of dollars he made as a player weren’t enough? I had been led to believe Hardaway’s change of heart was a real change of heart; But these latest comments make me believe it’s just a change of wealth.
on Sep 16th, 2009 at 1:55 am
oh, so Hardaway’s philanthropy is just a ploy to help him make money?
on Sep 16th, 2009 at 2:09 am
See, this is the problem with forcing apologies… Tim sounds like the eight-year-old who spits out a half-assed “I’m sorry” to the kid he stole a kickball in the presence of his mother for the sole purpose of hopefully getting punished less.
I say society’s on the right track.. let’s let the bigots just dig their own graves and see how deep they’ll go without getting a slap on the wrist. Wouldn’t it be more convenient to know what was actually a decent person and who just has a good PR consultant?
on Sep 16th, 2009 at 4:55 am
It continues to amaze me that we even have to hear this wack job again and again. So I say, “then go and shower with the likes of Stephon Marbury!”
on Sep 16th, 2009 at 5:00 am
I’m surprised he didn’t say something about feeding his children. That’s what most of these obscenely rich guys say. As if their children must eat gold to live or something.
on Sep 16th, 2009 at 7:04 am
Let me get this straight (so to speak!)….he’ll shower with his “straight” teammates, who no doubt have gazed at his cock and ass….and who, no doubt, carry their fair share of STDs, etc….but he’s scared of a gay dude? Most people who talk like this guy have some serious issues with their own sexuality. Kills me that homophobic men think that all gay guys want to have sex with them! lol
on Sep 16th, 2009 at 8:35 am
Dear Mr. Hardaway,
Trust me. I’d NEVER want to shower in the presence of your ugly motherf**king ass.
Signed,
SCTrojan
on Sep 16th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
Why do straight guys always assume we want to sleep with all of them? Not all of them are especially attractive or sexy or even have good personalities. And yes, as someone else said no doubt his str8 team mates have checked him out in the shower and no doubt Tim has checked them out too. Get over yourself a**hole. Its just a freaking shower in the locker room not a night in a bath house.
on Sep 16th, 2009 at 4:44 pm
You can let his foundation know what you think of him at http://www.timhardawayfoundation.com.
on Sep 16th, 2009 at 11:53 pm
I know a girl who worked for the media in Miami and was not afraid to look at the gifts each man possesed while in the Locker Room after Heat games.
Not shockingly Mr.Hardaway supposedly possesed a VERY SMALL GIFT if you get my drift.
Something tells me Timmy was prob laughed at by a few guys in his day and he is sorely overcompensating for his shortcomings.
on Sep 17th, 2009 at 4:44 am
I wouldn’t want to shower with him. I guess that makes us even.
on Sep 17th, 2009 at 4:45 am
I wouldn’t want to shower with Hardaway either. If I got too close I may catch a severe case of “I’m a f’ingassholitis”.
The one positive thing here is that this organization has a positive spin on it, if it’s what he says it is.
on Sep 18th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
Some people never learn, grow or grow up.
on Sep 19th, 2009 at 11:51 am
come on OUTSPORTS, this is not worthy of printing, this is not news, or even information worth repeating! I exspect better for you!
where are the sports information stories, not crap about who will or will not SHOWER with a homosexual!
on Sep 19th, 2009 at 9:08 pm
Does it count if we look at him naked on the internets?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fL4zpbG2ZCU&feature=related
on Sep 20th, 2009 at 2:37 am
It’s tragic what happened to Tim. The vindictive gays and their misguided supporters used every dirty trick in the book to rape him in the ass to submission. he was forced to attend a bunch of bullshit sensitivity training sessions where he was mind raped by a bunch of fags into becomeing a queer lover! He is just another in a long list of good men who got screwed by the gay agenda!
on Sep 20th, 2009 at 5:07 am
Wow, bofuthereturn, your insight makes me feel like I don’t want to be gay anymore. Please pray for me!!!