LEARNING THE HARDAWAY

I know it seems like I’m picking on the NBA a lot in the early postings here, but there has been so much…unfortunate news coming from the hardwood lately.

In the public spectrum, there are dumb things to say aloud, there are things that are atrocious to say aloud and then there are things that make people say, “What the hell was s/he thinking?”

And then there’s Tim Hardaway.

For those of you under a rock in the last week, the former NBA All-Star offered up some love on Valentine’s Day for John Amaechi, the ex-player who came out of the closet in a book released today.

In a homophobic diatribe on Dan LeBatard’s Miami radio show, Hardaway, among other things, said that he “hated gay people” and would have asked that a teammate be traded if he found out he was gay.

As Howard Wasserman said on his blog (http://sports-law.blogspot.com), Hardaway is “another example of how free expression plays out in sport”.

Let me first off agree with Wasserman in saying that I respect Hardaway’s honesty and guts. While I in no way condone his views, Hardaway has every right to speak his mind in the public media. He held steadfast to his views, and many cite that his views more than likely reflect the bulk of the NBA.

However, Hardaway is also now finding out the Blackstonian concept of free speech: you can say what you want, but don’t have protection on the consequences.

Obviously, the backlash against Hardaway has been one of furor. Out of the limelight for years, the former All-Star became the most hated man in sports last week in an instant.

From a PR standpoint, in all honesty, Hardaway is screwed. Although they are his feelings, malicious words such as the ones in his interview pretty much did irreparable damage; he is now going to forever earn the stigma of a hateful and intolerant person.

Of course, Tim had to issue several apologies since the incident. Initially, however, Hardaway’s damage control was laughable. As noted on an NBA themed blog (http://nba.aolsportsblog.com), the guard appeared sorry that he made the comments out loud, not that he was sorry for their meaning; the blog notes that “Hardaway’s apology is as brief as it is meaningless”. Hardaway has since changed his tune, saying that he “no longer hates gay people”, but few will likely buy his sudden change of heart as sincere and rather as an attempt to save even a centimeter of face. In several interviews, Amaechi said he isn’t buying it either, and that any apology would be too late.

Facing a PR crisis of its own, the NBA acted quickly and effectively. Commissioner David Stern announced that Hardaway would no longer represent the league in an ambassador role (which was fairly obvious even without Stern acting at that point). In addition, Stern indicated that the league was considering gay-tolerance training to future rookies.

In another interesting angle to the Hardaway story, the author of http://deadspin.com/sports/nba believes that ESPN is to blame for all of the controversy. It was ESPN who printed an interview with Amaechi in its magazine and announced his shift in sexuality on its television programs, and it was also ESPN whose radio show carried the Hardaway interview and rebroadcast it on Sportscenter over and over. While I don’t think it would be possible for ESPN to conspire this mess, I’m sure they weren’t holding back on sparking a little controversy to draw readers to their Web site, viewers to their programs, etc.

To sum it up, Tim Hardaway had every legal right to say what he did last week. However, the damage to his reputation is more than likely irreparable in this 21st century society.