Sport has heard the voice of hate
Tim Hardaway, the retired five-time NBA All-Star and a Chicago native, was the guest.
Hoops was the topic.
The interview was about over. Commercials beckoned.
''I almost forgot to ask the question,'' Le Batard said. ''I would have forgotten if my producer hadn't whispered in my ear.''
And what was it the producer whispered?
Ask Tim what he thinks about John Amaechi and gays.
Hello, roadside bomb.
''I hate gay people,'' Hardaway said. ''I am homophobic. I don't like [homosexuality]. It shouldn't be in the world or in the United States.''
Amaechi, of course, is the former NBA player from England who recently came out as a homosexual, saying pro sport is not ready for an active gay male athlete. Too much prejudice, Amaechi said. Too much danger.
In a way, the public has been waiting for a sporting face who would become the poster for gay hatred, the face of the intolerant and horrified and cruel that Amaechi and others like him have said exists on a grand scale.
And here -- out of the blue -- he came.
Tim Hardaway -- the hard-working point guard who, in 1991-92, averaged 23 points, 10 assists, four rebounds and two steals for the Golden State Warriors; who won a gold medal in the 1994 World Championship; who won an Olympic gold in 2000 -- he was it.
Le Batard freaked.
''I didn't know how to handle it,'' he told me on the phone Thursday night. ''I should have asked 10 more minutes' worth of questions. Instead, I went to the break. I was just stunned.''
Even more stunning to Le Batard was his ensuing Thursday radio show.
''It blew my mind,'' he said, ''all the people who called in and agreed with Hardaway.''
It seems likely that strict interpretation of religious tracts such as the Bible and the Koran have contributed to the lack of tolerance shown to homosexuals, because the word of God often is used in judgment against them by critics.
But gays are everywhere, and they are not predatory and they are not freaks and they did not make themselves, and if tolerance and understanding are not part of religion, then what is religion itself?
''It's like the only thing people [like Hardaway] think about gays is that gays want to have sex with them,'' Le Batard said. ''It's fear and ignorance.''
Perhaps we need to be reminded that sexual assault and harassment laws cut evenly, in all directions, all ways.
If an NBA player has a problem undressing in a locker room with a gay teammate present, he can wear a towel. Female reporters are routinely present in male locker rooms these days. Trainers are often female. Somehow heterosexual male athletes deal with that.
Indeed, it seems that until someone has an ''out'' relative/friend/boss/ mentor/teammate, he or she need not confront the actual humanity of homosexuals and can view the group, generally, as outcasts who only want to make life unpleasant for straights.
Billy Bean, the former major-league baseball player who came out after his playing career, told me a couple of years ago that he didn't ''choose'' to be gay, that he was, in fact, confounded as a youth by his feelings, that as a handsome, talented multisport high school star in California, his life would have been so much easier if only he were heterosexual.
But he wasn't. And he isn't.
Former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue has an openly gay son, Drew. Drew and his male partner are shown in the Tagliabues' Christmas cards along with the straight members of the family, and the world has not stopped, nor have NFL players started wearing tutus.
Tough old Paul recently was honored by P-FLAG, the national organization for friends and family of lesbians and gays, because of his donation of money and time to the cause. And if Tags can be understanding of people unlike himself, who can't be?
Gill and other very rich gay (and many straight) men are engaging in grassroots, scientifically orchestrated election donations, backing state politicians of either Democratic or Republican party who are interested in promoting ''gay equality'' and destroying knee-jerk prejudice.
Gill (who founded publishing-software giant Quark Inc.) and his stealthy proponents, such as Jeff Soref, heir to the Master Lock fortune, have blown up the careers of a number of openly homophobic elected officials.
And more are to come. They guarantee it.
''My goal is to see that all Americans are treated equally, regardless of sexuality,'' Gill says.
Maybe Hardaway, who has apologized for his statements, should simply do some history reading instead.
In case he hasn't noticed, minorities in this country will have their day.
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