NBA veteran: Imus 'should've been fired'

DAILY NEWS 76ers-beat writer Phil Jasner yesterday interviewed veteran Indiana Pacers guard Darrell Armstrong - who has a 15-year-old daughter who plays basketball - about Don Imus. Here are some excerpts:

* "He should've been fired right off the

bat. Tim Hardaway made comments about the homosexual situation with John Amaechi and he lost his job. Same thing [with] anybody else; if you make a statement that's not right, especially for radio or TV, he should've been out of there."

* "That's a racial slur. Even if a black guy

would have been on the radio and called the Rutgers team (names), he'd need his butt whupped. Even if a black guy had said the same thing about the Rutgers team, people would have been offended."

Q: What about some of the lyrics in hip-hop music?

A."You can't put hip-hop in. Everybody wants to put hip-hop in everything. This is sports. Sports are sports. Basketball is basketball. Football is football. Announcers on TV are not calling these girls those names. Music is music. People buy that. Everybody doesn't listen to that music."

Q: What was your initial reaction?

A. "Just to hear him laugh while he was saying it, that was probably the most disturbing thing. Everybody makes mistakes [but] some things you just don't say. Like Tim Hardaway, you don't quote on anything you hate, especially dealing with homosexuality. You can't quote on stuff like that. Keep it to yourself."

Q: So a two-week suspension wasn't enough?

A. "Suspend him for two weeks . . . if it's two weeks, if you're not going to fire him, don't suspend him.

"There are things you don't say in front of your mom, your dad. Everybody knows that. Really, you've got to be careful. All the basketball teams around the world need to get together and corner him, give him a good whupping."