A daily rant from Jim DeFede of CBS4.Com...Last night I was watching Jill Martin's exclusive interview with Tim Hardaway and one thought kept popping into my head over and over again: Tim Hardaway is an idiot.
"When I was growing up…..we say we hate broccoli, we say we hate potato chips… It's just a form of how we talk," said Hardaway during his interview on Sunday.
So Tim Hardaway hates gay people the way he hates broccoli?
Maybe gay people make him gassy. I don't know.
This was Hardaway's first sit down interview since his homophobic screed on Dan LeBatard's radio show last week and you can hear the desperation in his voice.
“I want to tell people I'm sorry, sorry for using...sorry for saying I hate you. I don't hate nobody.”
I believe he is sorry for the hell his life has become.
The NBA repudiated him, his business partners are distancing themselves from him, and any hope he had of being a sportscaster is now gone.
But what the interview with Jill Martin showed is that Hardaway still doesn't get what was wrong with his comments.
He regrets the words he used but not necessarily the sentiment behind them. He talked about counseling, but in a dismissive manner, noting that everyone could use a little counseling.
Hardaway would do well to embrace his ignorance.
Let's go back to his broccoli anaolgy.
If saying I hate broccoli is no different in his mind than saying I hate gay people, we should be able to go back to his radio comments and substitute the word broccoli for gay people and Hardaway's comments should seem perfectly normal.
Here is what he said on the radio.
“Well 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.”
Okay, now let's substitute the word broccoli.
Well you know I hate broccoli, so I let it be known. I don't like broccoli and I don't like to be around broccoli. I am anti-broccoli. I don't like it. It shouldn't be in the world or in the United States. So yeah, I don't like it.
Does that sound normal?
You might hear that from a 7-year-old kid, but not a 39-year-old man.
But maybe that's what we are dealing with here. Someone who has been given so much because of his athletic ability, but who is stunted mentally.
A child in a man's world who was never forced to finish his vegetables.