FanHouse TimHardaway

On Tuesday, some comments Brendan Haywood made about Stephon Marbury and perceived homosexual behavior in Marbury's lifestreaming escapades came to light. In short, Haywood said that because Marbury got a shirtless massage from a male friend and danced to a disco song on video, no NBA player would want to share a locker room with him. Because, you know, he might be gay. Kelly Dwyer and Kevin Arnovitz have both responded in exemplary fashion -- read those reactions if you care at all about the issue.

Haywood has since posted what he dubs an apology on Yardbarker. As an avowed fan of the newly unfiltered relationship between athletes and fans, I'm encouraged that Haywood knew enough to know he needed to apologize. But in that apology, Haywood invokes the name Tim Hardaway (as in, "I wasn't trying to come off like Tim Hardaway") and offers up ye old "if it doesn't affect me, I don't really care" response to the very existence of homosexuality.

In other words, Haywood notifies us that he will continue to be a part of the problem.

Tim Hardaway is very confused. He sees himself as a leader of men and a coacher of young basketball talents. Which makes the fact that he cannot get a job, particularly with the Miami Heat, as a head coach, particularly frustrating.

'I've talked to Pat (Riley),' Hardaway said. 'Had great conversations with him. Don't know why I'm not there. I've been trying for three or four years now. Don't know why I'm not there. It's kind of frustrating to me because I know I can help them out with that type of stuff - scouting, helping out with the guys, making sure they understand what they need to do.

'It's kind of frustrating to have my expertise around and willing to help and they're not calling.'

All obvious sarcastic statements aside, Tim must have a wicked awful short term memory. Because not even Kobe had the audacity to try and flip the media's perception of him this quickly. Remember, it was less than 18 months ago when Hardaway came out and told everyone how he felt about homosexuals.

So, despite his apology, people are probably still pretty cautious about giving him a job. If I had to pick a GM to do open the floodgates, it would probably be Riley. Hardaway is a former player and it would give Riles plenty of wiggle room to fire him mid-season if the Heat started playing well and he wanted to coach again struggled.

Via SBB

It's been one year since former NBA star Tim Hardaway made those insensitive and offensive remarks about his feelings towards gay people, and it appears that at this point, he's a changed man. Hardaway went back on the radio show where it all started, and spoke to Dan Le Batard about how, through counseling, his feelings have now changed.

I have found out through counseling...going through counseling and understanding what I said was totally wrong, and I gave people...permission to go out and hurt gay people, you know, beat 'em up, kick out your son and daughter out of the house and not treat 'em as people.

They are people. We should treat them as people. They are citizens of the United States. I just want everybody to know I did a bad thing, and now I understand what I did, and I corrected it, and I went to counseling to understand why I did that, and understand that I'm a better person now from that.

Great, Tim, thanks for that. Thanks for going on the radio and telling us all something that we already knew, without having to go to counseling for a year to realize it. For more pearls of wisdom like these from Hardaway, you can listen to the entire radio interview here.

[via SbB] Sorry, No Photos

MJD already touched on this, but I'm angry and bored enough to give it a closer look. As reported by Lion in Oil, Tim Hardaway has made a good faith effort to make nice with the gay community. Hardaway spent some time at the YES Institute, which preaches tolerance and non-suicide.

Hardaway was "scared," I guess because of his past misdeeds and all the cooties in the room. But he overcame his weakness, and now is cool with the whole homo thing. The YES Institute website says so.

I'm calling b.s. on this one. It rings every bit as hollow as Michael Vick's heartfelt God-finding: a convenient, morally-sanctioned way to make amends. Then again, I was never wholly convinced that Hardaway was a steadfast homophobe. Let's not forget that his remarks came on the radio; he was trying to entertain, playing to the crowd. If you don't think that zany queer-bashing is part of talk radio's locker room culture, you obviously don't turn on the radio much.

I suspect that the real Tim Hardaway is somewhere between the two extremes. It's a shame that, because of his semi-celebrity status, we never get to see the real him.

I thought we were at a point in the 21st century where gays and lesbians were accepted as being no different than anyone else. I guess Tim Hardaway proved this differently. And so has an El Cajon-based Christian ministry, which is complaining about Pride Night at Petco Park. The group promotion is scheduled to occur the same night children ages 14 & under will be receiving a cap as a giveaway, which has angered the ministry:

Set Free Ministries will make its point by walking out on the 42 concession jobs its participants fill. The recovery program run by Southern Baptist missionaries also plans to pass out fliers about Pride Night to families entering Petco Park that day.

"We're concerned about Christian parents and other parents who do not want to have to answer at a ballgame why 'Adam and Steve' are doing what they are doing," said Pastor J.D. Loveland, development director.

The Padres have responded by indicating their tolerance towards all fans:

Considering what Tim Hardaway has been through this year, I can't imagine he's the most qualified to give advice about how to improve your public image -- but here he is giving his unfiltered opinion about Allen Iverson's cornrows (mild NSFW language, but nothing worse than what you may hear on SportsCenter):


Because cornrows are apparently more controversial than, say, homophobia. Got it. If you listened all the way through, you also heard him explain the root of domestic violence, in an odd, stream of consciousness rambling way that manages to be offensive to women, referees, football players and David Stern -- if nothing else, he's efficient:

Sometimes you know, the league should, uh, the referees should calm down. You got to understand, this is an emotional game. Some officials just need to chill out ... The game is a game of emotions. If you can't show emotions, if you keep that s--t in, then you go home and whup up on your wife. It's that football s--t. You know, be all upset and s--t, go home to your wife and whup your wife. But you need to calm down. Referees need to calm down. But it's not the referees, it's the league that you got to tell them that.

To be honest, I don't have a clue when this interview was made, though I'd be a little shocked if it came after the whole John Amaechi affair. It's apparently from the "Off the Chedder DVD vol. 7" (if I didn't see the first six volumes, will I still understand this one?), which sounds like an underground (read: "low budget") hip hop mix videos that's available up at your nearest Best Buy car trunk on a street corner.

(via YOU BEEN BLINDED and Ballhype)

Previously on FanHouse:
Tim Hardaway's Gay-Friendly Car Wash
Hardaway Apologizes; Amaechi Appreciates the Honesty
Tim Hardaway Did Not Spend Valentine's Day With a Dude

While John Amaechi continues to crusade for gay athletes and hairlessness, his foil Tim Hardaway is just trying to get his profesisonal life back on track. Following his virulent anti-gay comments and subsequent exile from All-Star weekend, Hardaway realized he needs to make amends. Sort of. If only for career reasons. From The Miami Herald:

"People have been trying to kick me when I'm down," he said this week, reflecting on everything that has happened. The reaction was "very, very shocking. People saying my wife left me -- that's not true. My family is OK and my finances are OK."

". . . I'm looking for a second chance and trying to clean up my image. I haven't been in trouble with drugs or guns. I'm an upstanding citizen. Like I told my children, life is not easy. This is a big bump I have to overcome. I'm going to deal with it like a champ. I've got to make sure people know I don't hate gay people."

I suppose that's good news for all the Hardaway supporters, and bad news for anyone who thinks that his comments weren't themselves enough of an embarassment. But when it comes to trying to reach out to the people he's offended, Tim's still taking a hardline:

Hardaway, who attended a Heat game last week, said he soon will speak with a gay organization (he's considering three) to "make them understand" why he made his comments -- which he apologized for -- and to gain a better understanding of their perspective. He rejected an offer to spend a day with North Miami Mayor Kevin Burns, who is gay, "because that was more for publicity for him."

I'm no expert in public relations, but it seems to me that part of seeking forgivenes is compromising, showing humility, stuff like that. If Hardaway is out to convince the world he's not a bigot, he should, pardon the phrase, bend over backwards. Trying to set the terms himself, questioning people's intentions, and trying to "make them understand" just looks like he's pleading guilty to a speeding ticket.

If only Hardaway had just won a Super Bowl... then none of this would happening.

Reggie Bush makes his MTV debut in Ciara's new video, which features a moment that would make Tim Hardaway's head explode:



Now, if you're me, for a moment early in the video you thought that Reggie Bush was in a dress and wig facing away from the camera and you were sexually attracted to his fantastic, lithe legs despite not caring about the Saints even a little bit. And then Ciara turned around and you exhaled.

(Via The Big Lead.)

Dan Le Batard, who conducted the original interview with Tim Hardaway that sparked the entire thing, did another interview recently with Rony Seikaly, another former Heat player. Seikaly ... is fantastic. Among the highlights:

• Seikaly's personal philosophy on sexual preference: "Whatever tickles your bone."

• Brings up Marv Alberts' past sexual indiscretions.

• Seikaly, and I think this is the most bizarre part of the interview, says that 60% to 70% of the women who play professional sports are lesbians.

• Seikaly says he was once hit on by a gay teammate. "One of my teammates was, I don't know if he was bisexual, but I definitely know that he was after men. ... That person made a move on me. I was like, "wait a minute, I think you're barkin' up the wrong tree, my friend ... I just played it off like, 'this can't be happening.'"

• Of the gay teammate, he said his advances were "very smooth." Seikaly has amazing will power.

• Seikaly wouldn't reveal the identify of the gay player, but he did say, "Don't be mistaken, that it's soft, or it's this white guy who's not grabbing rebounds or blocking shots. You'll be surprised. Other way around."

While trying to adjust to the idea that Seikaly isn't gay ... yeah, see, that's what we need. No disrespect to John Amaechi, but the guy who drank tea in the locker room before games doesn't shock the world when he reveals he's gay. When a hard-nosed, thugged-out, board-banging, shot-swatting gangsta comes out of the closet ... then we start breaking down barriers.

I've always liked Rony Seikaly (that's weird, I know). But he's a solid guy. When Magic Johnson returned to the NBA after announcing that he was HIV-positive, no one wanted to work out with him, and no one would practice with him ... until Seikaly took the court and asked Magic if he wanted to play some on-one-one.

Seikaly and Magic played against each other, all out, sweating, pushing, banging ... with no awkwardness from Rony. It meant the world to Magic.

I miss Rony Seikaly.

Gay-hater Tim Hardaway owns a car wash in south Florida, and until today, the sign above it read:

Tim Hardaway Presents
FINEST HAND CARWASH

Fearing a financial backlash from gay people with dirty cars, the billboard has been changed to read:

GRAND LUXE AUTO
Hand Car Wash & Detaling Center

No mention of Hardaway whatsoever. Poor guy has lost his spot with NBA Cares, an endorsement with BaldGuyz, and now his name no longer appears on a billboard for a car wash.

This one, anyway, I don't think will result in the loss of any revenue for Hardaway. It's just a name on a billboard. The consequences shouldn't be too severe as long as they keeeeeeeeeep those rags and machines hummin'.

Grand Luxe Auto. That sounds like a fabulous place to get your car washed. From here, the only logical next step is to employ all car-washers, shirtless, and prone to have accidental soapy spillage on their chiseled torsos.

And I think as an act of contrition, Tim Hardaway should have to personally provide every gay customer with some custom hand work.