Soccer "is not going to change, " said Amaechi, who is English and now lives in Manchester.
Hardaway later apologized for his statement -- but the sentiment persists among many athletes, Amaechi says.
Britain's first NBA basketball star John Amaechi has been awarded the OBE by the Prince of Wales.
Amaechi says he still remembers the pointed response from NBA star Tim Hardaway that followed his disclosure.
Former basketball star John Amaechi is one of the world's most high-profile gay athletes, having come out in 2007.
Several male athletes have previously come out after retirement, including Amaechi, the NFL's Esera Tuaolo and Major League Baseball's Billy Bean.
Amaechi, 40, from Stockport, Greater Manchester, was honoured for services to sport and the voluntary sector at the ceremony at Buckingham Palace.
He now runs a motivational speaking business from Manchester and founded the Amaechi Basketball Centre at the city's Whalley Range High School for Girls.
Amaechi, a former England centre, was born in Boston in the United States and raised in Stockport, before moving to Ohio as a teenager and getting a basketball scholarship at Penn State University.
Amaechi told CNN he hopes Collins will be a catalyst for a wider acceptance of openly gay athletes, saying he believes Collins is better equipped than anyone who came before him to handle the attention that will come his way.
While Collins is the first male athlete in a major North American professional league to come out while intending to keep playing, several have previously spoken after they retired about being gay, including the NBA's John Amaechi, the NFL's Esera Tuaolo and Major League Baseball's Billy Bean.
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