Former NBA star Tim Hardaway made a distasteful comment during the broadcast of the Golden State Warriors and San Antonio Spurs game Monday night.
The Warriors were doing the “Run TMC” broadcast, which was to honor three of their stars from the past: Hardaway, Chris Mullin and Mitch Richmond.
Bob Fitzgerald is the normal play-by-play announcer alongside former Warrior Kelenna Azubuike, so this was a special broadcast in the Bay Area.
Unfortunately for watchers, though, they had to hear Hardaway comment on a Draymond Green steal in a foul manner.
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“Y’all thought that was great [defense], I thought that was just raping them,” he said during a play in the second quarter. “I think you should’ve called the police on that.”
Hardaway later apologized for his comment.
“I used a poor choice of words earlier in the broadcast. I want to apologize for that,” he said. “Let’s get back to the game and let’s finish the game off with a 30-point win and go home happy.”
It’s safe to assume that Hardaway won’t be behind the microphone anytime soon after that comment.
And this isn’t the first time that Hardaway said the wrong thing. In 2007, he said on “The Dan Le Betard Show” that “I hate gay people, so I let it be known.”
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“I don’t like gay people and I don’t like to be around gay people. I am homophobic,” he added. “I don’t like it. It shouldn’t be in the world or in the United States.”
Prior to being enshrined into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in September, Hardaway apologized for those comments, citing the church instilled those thoughts in him.
“I grew up in a curch, and that’s the way churches were – they instilled in you that (homosexuality) wasn’t the way you should be,” Hardaway said via the San Francisco Chronicle. “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.”
Hardaway spent five and a half seasons with the Warriors, starting as a rookie in the 1989-90 season as the 14th overall pick.
He averaged 19.8 points, 3.6 rebounds, and 9.3 assists in 422 career games with them, leading to three of his five All-Star appearances while in Golden State.
Hardaway also played for the Miami Heat for six seasons, while spending one year with the Dallas Mavericks, Denver Nuggets and Indiana Pacers.
