Distancing Yourself From Controversy

The National Basketball Association made the right moves following Tim Hardaway's recent anti-gay rants. This situation could have been disastrous for the NBA (for Hardaway, it already has been), but instead the league handled things calmly and smoothly. Once media outlets began reporting on Hardaway's comments, the league removed the former player from his scheduled All-Star Weekend appearances and all but disavowed his association with the NBA. John Amaechi's decision to come out could prove to be a very positive thing for the NBA, but that only will happen if the league can convince the public that it is OK with homosexuality and that homophobia is not as big of a problem in the NBA as Hardaway's comments would lead people to believe. The league could take steps to make itself more appealing to the gay community. For example, heterosexual players publicly could state their support for gay rights and for gay teammates. When dealing with such an important issue, the one thing that the league has to be sure of is that it is not promoting or disseminating hate. Hardaway found this out the hard way.