Tim Hardaway, You're Fired!

Former NBA player Tim Hardaway has been fired from his role with the Continental Basketball Association after his hateful anti-gay rant in a radio interview last week where he stated that he hated gay people.

Ricardo A. Richardson, president and CEO of the CBA, told Outsports.com Monday that Hardaway has been relieved of his duties as Chief Basketball Operations advisor and coach for the CBA team Miami Majesty.

Tim Hardaway said in a radio interview last week that he would not have tolerated a gay player on his team and that he would have demanded that either the gay teammate, or Hardaway himself, be traded if so had happened.

"Well, you know, I hate gay people," Hardaway said. "I let it be known, I don't like gay people. I don't like to be around gay people.

"Yeah, I'm homophobic. I don't like it. It shouldn't be in the world for that or in the United States for that. So, yeah, I don't like it."

Former NBA player John Amaechi, who recently came out of the closet, said in a comment, "I don't need Tim's comments to realize there's a problem. People said that I should just shut up and go away. Now they have to rethink that."

"His words pollute the atmosphere," Amaechi said. "It creates an atmosphere that allows young gays and lesbians to be harassed in school, creates an atmosphere where in 33 states you can lose your job, and where anti-gay and lesbian issues are used for political gain. It's an atmosphere that hurts all of us, not just gay people."

Last week Hardaway was fired from his role in the NBA's Community Caravan program: "It is inappropriate for him to be representing us given the disparity between his views and ours," NBA Commissioner David Stern told the Sun-Sentinel.

Hardaway played for the Miami Heat from 1996 to 2001.