Dallas Mavs Ex Tim Hardaway Sr. Apologizes for Warriors TV 'Rape' Joke

Former Mavs and NBA star Tim Hardaway Sr. - in an attempt to be funny, or clever, or provocative, or something - made a "rape'' joke on TV, and has apologized.

The Golden State Warriors this week welcomed back "Run TMC'' - their legendary on-court trio of Tim Hardaway, Mitch Richmond and Chris Mullin - and put the 1990's stars behind the microphones as part of the TV broadcast of the team’s game against the San Antonio Spurs.

And Hardaway - in an attempt to be funny, or clever, or provocative, or something - made a "rape'' joke.

“So y’all thought that was great D?'' Hardaway said to his broadcast buddies in reflecting on a play that saw San Antonio’s Jakob Poeltl fouling Warriors star Stephen Curry in a particularly physical manner. "I thought that was just raping him. I think you should call the police on that.”

To the credit of Hardaway - who during his fine NBA career also played for the Dallas Mavericks, the team his son Tim Hardaway Jr. now plays for - he almost immediately followed up his offensive comment early in the third quarter with an on-air apology.

“Hey, everybody,'' he said before start of the fourth quarter of the Warriors' blowout victory over the Spurs. "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 - who has no training as a broadcaster - spoke excitedly about what might happen live on the air.

"We'll see what type of skills we've got together," Hardaway said. "Chris (Mullin, who is part of the Warriors broadcast crew) does a great job, but we're going to bring flavor.''

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