Tim Hardaway Joins Stan Van Gundy's Coaching Staff
DETROIT (97.1 The Ticket) Former Miami Heat great Tim Hardaway is now an assistant coach with the Detroit Pistons.
The Miami Herald first reported the addition of the former point guard to the Pistons. Hardaway told the paper, "I'm ecstatic ..."It's something I wanted to do. It's all about teaching. I'm good at teaching and understanding players."
Hardaway played with the Heat while Van Gundy was an assistant and told the Herald he and Van Gundy have a great "rapport."
Hardaway's son Tim Jr. played at Michigan from 2010-2013 and now plays for the New York Knicks.
Tim Sr. is a five time NBA All-Star and averaged 17.7 ppg and 8.2 apg in his NBA career.
He made headlines in 2007 when he told an interviewer he wouldn't want to play ball with a gay teammate. "I hate gay people," he said at the time.
His comments set off a firestorm, and Hardaway later apologized and got involved in gay supporting groups, and signed a petition to legalize gay marriage in Florida.
A year ago, according to FOX Sports Florida, he said this: "What I said and how I said it, it was bad. But I think it opened up a lot of eyes and made people really, really understand that these are people and that we shouldn't bash them or throw rocks at them or anything like that. I think that opened up a lot of eyes, opened up a lot of dialogue to which people didn't even want to touch (before). Now, I think they will touch it. I'm not saying that it's a good thing (the comments were made), but, if I didn't say that, I think we still would be further back."
The Miami Heat retired his number 10 in 2009.