It's time for the public relations nightmare of the night

Here is a conversation today between former NBA player Tim Hardaway and sportswriter Dan LeBatard on LeBatard's radio show.

LeBatard: How do you deal with a gay teammate?

Hardaway: "First of all I wouldn't want them on my team. And second of all, if he was on my team, you know, I would really distance myself from him because, uh, I don't think that is right. I don't think he should be in the locker room while we are in the locker room, and it's just a whole lot of other things and I wouldn't even be a part of that.

LeBatard:But stuff like that is going on and there's a lot of other people I hear that are like that and still in the closet and don't want to come out of the closet, but you know I just leave that alone.

Hardaway: What could you do? Would you ask for a trade?

LeBatard: Or I ask for him to get traded. Something has to give. And I think the majority of players would ask for him to be traded or they would want to be traded. Or buy him out of his contract and just let him go. Something has to give. If you have 12 other ball players in your locker room that are upset and can't concentrate and always worried about him in the locker room or on the court it's going to be hard for your teammates to win and accept him as a teammate.

LeBatard: What if the player was that great?

Hardaway: If he were that great something would still have to give. People would feel uncomfortable with that. If you're not gay nobody in that locker room would feel comfortable with that person on that team.

LeBatard: You know what you are saying there is flatly homophobic? It's bigotry?

Hardaway: "You know I hate gay people, so I let it be known. I don't like gay people and I don't like to be around gay people. I am homophobic. I don't like it. It shouldn't be in the world or in the United States. So yeah, I don't like it."

Thank you Tim Hardaway for your enlightened stance. My brother and I were watching Sportscenter and when we heard the "I hate gay people" line, we just busted out laughing. It is sad though. And I think it reflects that when or if the first current major professional sport athlete comes out of the closet (the WNBA doesn't count), that there will be plenty of people who aren't very accepting. But I figure this will be the hot story in sports for the next couple of days if not longer. Hope you enjoyed!