Former Warriors guard Tim Hardaway issued a public apology during the fourth quarter of the “Run TMC” broadcast on Monday night, for an off-color joke he made earlier in the game.
During the second quarter, Hardaway said what sounded like the following when making a joke about a Draymond Green block:
“So y’all thought that was great D?” Hardaway said. “I thought that was just raping him. I think they should call the police on that.”
The rest of the booth, consisting of his former teammates Chris Mullin, Mitch Richmond and Tom Tolbert, unsurprisingly tried to move on as quickly as possible. As the game went on, discussion on social media about the incident ensured that it would need to be addressed. Eventually in the fourth quarter, Hardaway made the following statement:
“I used a poor choice of words earlier in the broadcast,” Hardaway said. “I want to apologize for that. Let’s get back to the game and let’s finish the game off with a 30-point win and go home happy.”
It was the first time Hardaway, Mullin and Richmond had ever called a game from the booth, with the three taking over for a night honoring the three players from the iconic “Run TMC” era. The extremely casual nature of the broadcast made for a lot of fun moments, but also contributed to the foot-in-mouth incident.