West Virginia Mountaineers head coach Bob Huggins. Marvin Gentry-USA TODAY Sports

Former NBA center rips Bob Huggins for using anti-gay slur

By Victor Barbosa | Last updated 5/9/23

Former NBA player John Amaechi criticized Bob Huggins on Tuesday after the West Virginia coach used an anti-gay slur twice during an interview on Monday.

The 52-year-old played five NBA seasons between 1995 and 2003 (plus three seasons abroad), suiting up in 294 games with the Orlando Magic, Utah Jazz and Cleveland Cavaliers. Amaechi was an academic All-American while playing college basketball at Vanderbilt and Penn State and is now a psychologist and advocate for the LGBTQ+ community.
He made history in February 2007 as the first former NBA player to publicly come out as gay.

"I don’t know the man -- but he sounds like a dinosaur," Amaechi said, according to a TMZ Sports report. "College (and indeed pro) sports are littered with them."

Huggins' comments came during a radio appearance on 700WLW's "Bill Cunningham Show" and can be heard below. The longtime Mountaineers head coach (who also coached at Cincinnati for 16 seasons), was asked if his current program has recruited any Xavier players in the offseason.

⚠️ Here’s the audio of Bob Huggins calling Xavier fans “Catholic f--s” during an appearance on Bill Cunningham’s WLW radio show in Cincinnati pic.twitter.com/JTftGx9rQE
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) May 8, 2023

"It's hardly surprising that some people still think it’s OK to say these words," Amaechi said, per the TMZ Sports report. "As to whether he should be an educator (as a coach or otherwise), I would remind people that the vociferously anti-trans and anti-gay usually sit in a constellation where many other minority groups (including Black and Brown people) are also held in contempt."

Huggins apologized for his words later on Monday.