At the exact moment I finished listening to Tim Hardaway’s vitriolic anti-gay remarks and was about to write the first word of this column, I got an invitation from a gay friend inviting me to a party. Timing is, after all, everything.
I asked my friend what he thought about the comments by the former NBA player (who was with the Nuggets for 14 games in 2002).
“I’m used to them,” he said. “He is welcome to his opinion. But I wonder how he would feel if you substitute the word ‘African-American’ for ‘gay.”‘
Here, then.
“You know, I hate (African-American) people, so I let it be known. I don’t like (African-American) people, and I don’t like to be around (African-American) people. I am (a racist). I don’t like it. It shouldn’t be in the world or in the United States. … First of all, I wouldn’t want (an African-American) 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.”
Ahem.
Some (read: many) will respond this morning that the characterizations are totally different, one about skin color and the other a lifestyle choice. But “choice” is a matter of debate.
Nevertheless, it is still prejudice against those who are not the same. Sometimes, though, they are the same.
Nearby, a prominent religious leader railed against homosexuality until admitting, when it was about to be disclosed publicly, that he’d maintained a sexual relationship with another man.
What if players circulated a petition threatening a strike if an odd fellow was in the league? What if the team’s broadcaster said he would quit if the team had an odd fellow on its roster? What if a coach said he’d rather die than coach the odd fellow? What if the odd fellow was spat upon, verbally abused by opponents, fans and his own teammates and received death threats?
It happened, Tim Hardaway.
To Jackie Robinson, who broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball in 1947.
Robinson couldn’t hide his skin color.
But John Amaechi could hide his homosexuality, which he did for five NBA seasons with three teams, the last being the Utah Jazz in 2003.
Last week the British-born and American-bred Amaechi became the first current or former NBA player to announce he is gay. Amaechi’s timing was everything because of his new book “Man In The Middle” (published by one of my employers, ESPN. My primary employer, The Denver Post, is owned by the company that owns The Salt Lake City Tribune, in which a sports columnist Thursday morning termed Amaechi “the worst player in Jazz history.” At best, he was a journeyman.)
Coming out is a rare occurrence in the four (male) major sports. Only two major-league baseball players (and an umpire) and four NFL players have proclaimed, after their careers were over, they were gay. Similar declarations in women’s pro basketball and other men’s and women’s sports – golf, tennis and summer and winter Olympic events (decathloner Tom Waddell started the Gay Games) – have been more frequent, but met with mixed reactions. Several ex-gay athletes have been ostracized, but Martina Navratilova, a former Colorado resident, and Billie Jean King remain two of the most successful and popular tennis players of all time.
Hardaway presented his views on a radio talk show in Miami, then apologized for them later. But, truth is, his attitude is shared by countless others who play the games and watch the games. Substitute almost any categorization.
“Intolerance is an ugly word, unsightly in any company and particularly so on the sports pages where, happily, it does not often appear. Without laboring the point, it is fair to say that on most playing fields a man is gauged by what he can do, and neither race nor creed nor color nor previous condition of servitude is a consideration,” the late, premier sports columnist Red Smith wrote in 1947.
Nor should nationality, religious (or non-religious) beliefs or gay lifestyles be considered, I would add 60 years later. But intolerance does raise its ugly head and appears too often, unhappily, on the sports pages, as it does in society.
Staff writer Woody Paige can be reached at 303-954-1095 or wpaige@denverpost.com.
