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Ex-Knicks coach David Fizdale says team brass told him to tank during the 2018-19 season to try to get Zion Williamson or Ja Morant, while assuring him that Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving were coming to the Knicks the following summer. The Knicks went 17-65 that season with a roster that featured Tim Hardaway Jr. and Enes Kanter. “The plan that we came up with, I was all in on that, and I was like this is the deal and this is the way to go about it. It just didn’t come to fruition,” Fizdale said in an interview with @RunItBackFDTV. “...Losing all them damn games, donating my record to get Zion Williamson or Ja.”
Hardaway entered the league in 1989 and hit his peak during much of the 1990s. Considering he was right there to witness Michael Jordan, for many, the greatest player to ever touch a basketball and the absolute ruler of that decade, “Tim Bug” sure knows a thing or two about His Airness. But when discussing a hypothetical one-on-one tournament, Hardaway claimed Jordan would get absolutely obliterated, or, in today’s lingo, cooked, if he participated. And Hardaway, well, he had his arguments. “Would Michael Jordan want (to participate)… And I love Mike, I love Kobe, I love everybody. And it’s not a knock on nobody, but how did Michael Jordan win MVP? Was it alone, or was it with a team?” the Hall of Famer argued in his recent appearance on the “Crossover Podcast.” “I’m talking about one-on-one, if it was one-on-one, he would get cooked. Cuz ain’t nobody there. Scottie Pippen ain’t coming there to block your shot. Luc Longley… he not coming over there and put his big body on you, and he would hurt you, too…Dennis Rodman, he ain’t coming there to take the charge,” Hardaway added.
Lindsey Hunter on LeBron James likely ending his stint with Lakers: I think people got tired of like the Bronny thing and every time something happened, LeBron has something to say. It's a lot that comes with LeBron because he's a powerful person. Tim Hardaway Sr.: It's a lot of drama every day. Hunter: You know better than us you were down in Miami. Hardaway: Yeah. Everyday it's a lot of drama with LeBron James. Every f*cking day. What Rich Paul said as an agent, you don't talk about trading somebody during the season. You don't talk about nobody else's client. Austin Reaves is not your client. Don't talk about somebody else's client, what the Lakers should do and how they should do it. That's not your concern. That is in today's game. You know what? The old commissioner David Stern would have fined him. Dillon Brooks said these guys shouldn't have podcasts. I've been saying that for the last 10 years!
Tim Hardaway Sr: I'm not a Jason Kidd coaching fan. I'm just not a fan of his. It goes all the way back to what he did at Brooklyn. As a coach, you got to know your timeouts. And if you don't know your timeouts, you can't be having a drink of water and tell one of your guys like ‘hit me so I could drop this water’. The guy, he did that on the court. He got fined for that and he got a technical for that. I mean that as a coach, you got to know that. He laughing it off and, no, man! Then you go to Milwaukee. Of course, you discovered Giannis. You built Giannis to where he is today. But as a coach as with the team, you didn't build a team, and that's why he was looking crazy when Luka got traded. He was like, ‘Damn, now I got a coach because Luka bailed me out hundreds of times. I didn't have to call a call.’ Which Luka is that type of person. You don't have to call a call and you just let them bail you out. Now you got to have an offense.
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Grant Afseth: Final: Mavericks 131, Nuggets 130 Cooper Flagg: 33 PTS, 9 REB, 9 AST Anthony Davis: 31 PTS, 9 REB, 4 AST Naji Marshall: 15 PTS, 4 REB, 3 AST Jamal Murray: 31 PTS, 7 REB, 14 AST Nikola Jokić: 29 PTS, 7 REB, 14 AST Tim Hardaway Jr.: 23 PTS, 2 REB, 1 AST Dallas (21-7) faces the Warriors on the road on Thursday as part of the NBA's Christmas Day slate.
His son watched the highlights the next morning and nodded. “I was like, ‘Well, that’s dad for you,’” Hardaway Jr. told The Denver Post, laughing. The legendary ejection was the highlight of Sr.’s cup of coffee in Colorado. Traded from Dallas mid-season in 2002, he played 14 games for the Nuggets in what turned out to be the penultimate season of his Hall-of-Fame career. It’s not much, but it makes the Hardaways the first father-son duo to both suit up for Denver’s NBA team after the Nuggets put the finishing touches on their critically acclaimed offseason this July when they signed Hardaway Jr. to a one-year vet minimum contract. “My dad was dragging his leg that whole entire (2001-02) year,” he reminisced. “I can’t believe he was actually out there playing.”
Jonathan Kuminga is still locked in a prolonged contract dispute with your old team, the Golden State Warriors. Neither side seems convinced about the long-term fit, but restricted free agency has kept him in limbo. From your perspective, how does restricted free agency limit young players’ ability to control their careers? Tim Hardaway:I will tell you this: the (players) had to agree on that CBA. They had to agree on their CBA. You can disagree on it, and you can take a hard stance and say, “Look, I'm not going to agree to it. I don't want it.” A lot of these guys have to just stand on what they believe in. I think that in all Collective Bargaining Agreement talks, there’s probably one or two owners that don't want something in the CBA. There are about a hundred or 200 people that's on the other side with the teams or the players that don't want something. So they all gotta come together– and I guarantee you – the majority of them didn't wanna go that way, but they were persuaded to go that way because they were looking at the money that they were getting already.
You played for Pat Riley, and he’s still running things in Miami. What was your reaction to how the Jimmy Butler era ended with the Heat? Tim Hardaway:I was surprised. But Jimmy is gonna be Jimmy. Jimmy wanted an extension. Pat Riley said, “Why do I owe you an extension? You were hurt for the last couple of years going into the play-in game.” I know some things that were going on there that Jimmy was doing that I can't reveal, but it wasn't good and it wasn't good for the team. It wasn't good for the organization, and it was tearing the organization apart, and it was tearing the team apart a little bit. But Jimmy is a great basketball player; he wanted what he wanted. Pat was like “No, I'm not gonna give you what you want, because I gotta take a stance on something”
Tim Hardaway: We were used to playing and practicing, playing and practicing. We were used to it 'cause our body was used to it, you know? People are trying to do this study about gym shoes, low cuts, why they hurt their Achilles, and stuff like that. I say their bones are still fragile. Their bones haven't matured. Their bones haven't really gotten strong because a lot of these guys, if you look at them , don't drink milk. They don't drink real vitamin D milk. When we were growing up, our parents urged us to drink vitamin D milk. It is kind of funny, you know, 'cause I laugh when I say this, you know? We used to pass gas in school a lot because of the vitamin D milk, and walk around passing gas. But you know what? It was for your bones. It helps your bones get stronger. When you broke an arm, when you broke a shoulder, when you broke something, broke a wrist, they always, the doctors, were like, drink milk, drink milk, drink milk. That's going to mend your bones and make it stronger.
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Tim Hardaway on Luka Doncic: I think he has a really, really, really good chance of winning MVP. He should have won it probably about two years ago. But he didn't win it. He's that talented. But he still gotta do other stuff. Just because you lose weight, he's still gonna be the same Luka. This is not overseas. This is the NBA. You're still gonna have to keep your feet in front of people. They are still gonna go at you. Just 'cause you lost weight,, they don't believe that you could play defense now. You can move your feet now. You are as agile as you should be, and this and that. You're still 6’8, you’re still kinda slow. You still move at your own pace. But I would put Luka down as MVP this year.
Tim Hardaway: I don't know where they're going to really play Cooper Flagg at, and I don't know how they're going to play him. I don't know how they're gonna use them, because you gotta understand – these guys have already won championships. Klay’s that won championships, you got AD that’s won championships. I know you are the number one pick, but how are you gonna help us, and how are we gonna help you? That's something that Dallas needs to figure out. This guy's a great talent. I think he's going to grow. He got the mind level to grow as a really good basketball player. But you gotta remember, he's a rookie. He's only 18, 19 years old. He's coming in. His confidence can falter. You gotta have strong people that can build him up and keep him up. It's gonna be tough, man. It's gonna be tough If they stay healthy, they can contend in the West for a Championship. But they gotta stay healthy, because I like the pieces that they have.
Thinking back to the Jimmy Butler trade drama last season — how do players manage constant trade rumors during the season? Tim Hardaway:You can't have a weak mind. Tyler Herro didn't have a weak mind. He blocked all that BS out. He went out there and understood what he needed to do. First of all, he wanted to be healthy. That's his first thing. He wanted to come out and, and play healthy all season long, which he did. He knew what he could do. And once all that Butler drama happened, he said, “You know what? This ain't my BS.. I'm already signed. I'm already here. Let me go out and do what I'm supposed to do for my team. I'm gonna put them on my back, I'm gonna be the leader of this team, and I'm going to try to carry this team to that next level.” That's what he did. That's what you gotta do as a basketball player. You gotta leave all that other stuff alone. When somebody talks to you, say the right things and just keep it moving.
What’s your reaction to the Kawhi Leonard-Clippers salary-cap investigation? Tim Hardaway: Hey, if you can do it, you can do it! If you get away with it, you get away with it. But I tell you this – where there's smoke, there's fire. If the NBA thinks that you are wrong about doing stuff like that. They’re gonna get you, they're gonna get you. I say this – I'm not for sure. I'm not sure. I’ve heard things. I heard things, just like a lot of people have heard things, that a lot of that has been going on. We are talking about the 80s, the 90s. A lot of that has been going on. Under the salary cap, you can't pay 'em this, you can't pay 'em that. Just don't get caught!