Four years ago, Tim Hardaway made some of the most appalling comments you’ll ever hear a public figure make.
↵“You know, I hate gay people, so I let it be known,” Hardaway said in 2007, when asked about former NBA player John Amaechi revealing that he is gay. “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.”
↵Hardaway apologized after a controversy erupted, and he has said since then that he has spoken to gay people, educated himself and learned to let go of his homophobia. Hardaway now works for the Miami Heat, so he was a natural to weigh in on the homophobic slur uttered by Joakim Noah toward a Heat fan this week.
↵“You just have to take the right approach and hold your own self accountable for it and make everything right," Hardaway said Wednesday on ESPN 1000. “That’s all you can do.”
↵Noah has apologized for his slur, but I think he has to do more than just say he’s sorry. A good start would be Noah joining up with the It Gets Better Project.
↵Apologies are nice, but if Noah is really going to, in Hardaway’s words, make everything right, actions would mean more.