The Warriors turned back the clock to reunite franchise greats Monday night, but the evening wasn’t without an ugly blemish.
Golden State welcomed back Tim Hardaway, Mitch Richmond and Chris Mullin in a salute to the team’s famed Run TMC days of the early 1990s and let the trio broadcast the team’s game against the Spurs on NBC Sports Bay Area.
Unfortunately, Hardaway put his foot firmly in his mouth with an offensive comment early in the third quarter. After San Antonio’s Jakob Poeltl fouled Warriors star Stephen Curry on a chippy play, Hardaway used an inappropriate metaphor to describe what happened.
“So y’all thought that was great D? I thought that was just raping him,” Hardaway said. “I think you should call the police on that.”
The blowback must have been immediate, because Hardaway apologized for the comment before the start of the fourth quarter.
“Hey, everybody. I used a poor choice of words earlier in the broadcast,” Hardaway said. “I want to apologize for that. Let’s get back to this game and let’s finish the game off with a 30-point win and go home happy.”
Before the game, Hardaway admitted to ESPN that he hardly paid attention during a recent online production planning meeting where what you cannot say on the air was discussed.
It’s not Hardaway’s first brush with controversy. He made an infamous homophobic comment in 2007, which he later said kept him out of the Hall of Fame for years. Ultimately, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame earlier this year.
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