SAN DIEGO — Tim Hardaway Jr. woke up to uniquely bizarre news on his 10th birthday. His mom’s line delivery is almost as unforgettable as the event itself.
“Your dad threw the damn TV on the court!”
His dad was in Orlando with his new team, the Denver Nuggets. He was leaving quite an impression.
Angry at the lack of fouls called on Magic guard Darrell Armstrong, Hardaway Sr. picked up a second technical foul during the third quarter, disqualifying him. As he stormed toward the locker room, he grabbed a court-side television monitor off the scorer’s table and flung it onto the floor, where it bounced around until landing next to the center circle.
Armstrong retrieved the TV and elicited a roar from the crowd. Hardaway received a two-game suspension and $10,000 fine.
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.”
Don’t expect Jr. to throw any TVs. In addition to his “microwave scoring” capability, as executive Jon Wallace described earlier this offseason, Hardaway is the Nuggets’ newest vibes guy, joining a recent lineage of veteran locker-room voices ranging from Jeff Green to DeAndre Jordan.
On a roster suddenly brimming with depth after a busy summer, the magnitude of his role on the court could oscillate. But his easygoing style of leadership might be the ideal example for younger players learning to navigate similar ebbs and flows. Internal competition was a recurring topic at Nuggets training camp. Individual uncertainty throughout the season could be inherent — a side-effect of playing for a contender.
“I’ve realized throughout my career, sulking and being upset about something, it’s just being an energy-drainer at that point,” Hardaway told The Post. “So just coming in there, letting those guys understand if they’re having rough days, bad days, (my job is) lifting them up, if I have to take them to dinner, (or) if I have to get the team all out together.”
He’s making an impression already, even if it’s not as literal as the one his dad left. Jamal Murray enjoyed picking his brain when they spent time shooting together this week in San Diego. The star guard took an interest in their contrasting philosophies when it comes to shooting regimens, appreciating Hardaway’s different means to a similar end.
“This is just preference, but I like to mix up my routine,” Murray said. “I like to stay out of routine. I like to make myself have to find that feeling again. And he’s very like, ‘I’m gonna do this every single time, the same way, with the same feel, with the same kind of determination.’ That was really cool to see, just the way we shoot the ball different, but we were both making it at the same clip.
“He’s very in the present. He does a lot of stuff with intent.”
That routine is pieced together by tips and tidbits Hardaway has gathered from his own perimeter forefathers over the years. He had Kyle Korver as a teammate in Atlanta, JJ Redick in Dallas, Jeff Hornacek as a coach in New York — “juggernauts when it came to shooting the basketball,” he labels them. He learned the discipline of practicing his 3-pointer at game speed, rather than shooting at an unrealistic pace; the perfectionism of aiming for a swish and not touching the rim; the mental fortitude of staying the course during a slump.
“All in all, practice days, no more than 500 (makes) for me, but they’ve gotta be crisp,” Hardaway said. “They’ve gotta be consistent. There’s no lollygagging through the workouts. Just making sure your mechanics are on point.”
His shot could be life-altering for the Nuggets. They’ve been last in the NBA in 3-point attempts for two consecutive years, a symptom of their play style to some extent, but also an indication of what their roster needed this summer. Hardaway shot a good-not-great 36.8% from 3 last season on 5.9 attempts per game with the Pistons. His efficiency has been up and down throughout his career.
But critically, he converted 48% of his 148 “wide open” 3s last season, when the nearest defender was 6 feet away, according to league data. If and when he shares the floor with Nikola Jokic, Denver hopes that’ll be the most important number — that he’ll have the reputation to keep help defenders modest, and the capability to punish them for committing fully to the double-team. Denver’s spacing suffered in the playoffs. Jokic’s paint was perpetually clogged.
“I know what he can do,” Jokic said. “He’s a threat. … Hopefully he can set a tone for the rest of the guys.”
Hardaway says three or four teams reached out to express interest in him this offseason, but as his agent was gathering the options, Hardaway found out the Nuggets were hiring Jared Dudley and JJ Barea as assistant coaches. Dudley’s previous job was in Dallas, where Hardaway played five years. Barea was briefly his teammate there. Hardaway congratulated both of them and spent 15 minutes on the phone with Dudley, talking about the Nuggets. They had his attention.
“Once I was really interested, I talked to (head coach David Adelman) and we got it situated,” he said.
“It gives you more confidence (having Dudley and Barea on staff), just because they understand your style of play; they reiterate that to the rest of the coaching staff. I mean, Jared Dudley was my assistant coach in Dallas for years, so he knows what I can do on and off the floor for the team.”
The 33-year-old guard has been close to championship glory at multiple stages of his career. He reached the NCAA title game with Michigan after a memorable tournament run in 2013. It ended with a loss to Louisville. He went to his first NBA Finals last year with the Mavericks but fell short against Boston. There’s unfinished business for him.
But there are also more personal landmarks motivating Hardaway as he enters his 13th season of NBA basketball.
“One of the goals of mine, playing, was always to get ahead of my dad in my amount of years in the league,” he said. “So I think I’m matching him this year with 13.”
He’s only one year late to join the Nuggets.
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