'It was where I fit': Tim Hardaway's path through El Paso led to Naismith Hall of Fame

When Tim Hardaway embarked upon his 1,500-mile journey from Chicago to El Paso in 1985, he didn’t know he was just a short step on the way to Saturday's induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

He was a 5-foot-11 run-and-gun point guard with an ugly shot coming to be part of a Don Haskins program known for defense and discipline. By all accounts, he was not much like the player who became a five-time All-Star and 14-year pro.

What Hardaway had when he landed in El Paso was time and he sat about using it.

“Go there, you'll fall in love with” El Paso, Hardaway said this week from his home in Michigan. “I needed that coming out of Chicago, a big city, hustle and bustle every day.

“I needed to slow down and El Paso is a place you can slow down, think about what you need to do and how you need to do it. Figure out how you want to live your life.

“That's what El Paso showed me. Slow down, take your time, be patient, don't rush it. Everything will come if you put in your work and trust yourself.”

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Another reason he came to UTEP was Hardaway picked it over Western Illinois, the only other school that gave him a visit.

As it turns out, UTEP assistant Tim Floyd came across Hardaway's name from Mac Irvin, the "Godfather of Chicago basketball" and passed it to another Miner assistant, Chicagoan Rus Bradburd, who was tasked with seeing if the undersized guard was worth bringing in.

“I flew to Chicago and watched him play in a halfcourt playground game,” said Bradburd, now a professor at New Mexico State who will be in Springfield, Massachusetts for Hardaway’s induction. "To make sure my eyes were good — it was my first year recruiting — I watched him play a few days later at the YMCA and that was it. I watched him play twice and signed him based on the two unofficial pick-up games I saw.

“He seemed like he had a great feel for the game. He could see the court, it was almost like an old guy playing with young kids, even though he was only 17 or 18 at the time.

“I was young at the time, I'm six years older than Tim, close to the same age. When I was younger I could talk the talk and I got to be friends with him, I liked him. Coach (Don) Haskins liked him. But there was a real element of luck involved, more than some kind of savvy evaluation of talent.”

UTEP brought Hardaway and another under-recruited Chicagoan, Anthony Manuel (Floyd's pick) in for a visit. Hardaway said yes, while Manuel, also a point guard, didn't want to fight for playing time with Hardaway. Manuel went to Bradley and was the Missouri Valley player of the year in '89, the same year Hardaway won that award in the WAC.

Don Haskins quick to realize Tim Hardaway and his greatness

While Haskins was comparatively quick to realize Hardaway’s potential greatness, it wasn’t as obvious to others. When Hardaway arrived in El Paso, he wasn’t thinking about a lengthy pro career.

“What I wanted to accomplish was to go to school, get a degree and be a basketball player who helps UTEP win championships and go far,” Hardaway said.

“Have fun. I never thought I would be playing in the NBA, that wasn't what I was thinking about. I was just thinking about playing basketball, having fun, enjoying college.”

Hardaway’s freshman year he averaged 4.1 points and 1.9 assists in 15 minutes a game as he acclimated to college.

"I always said about Tim Hardaway, he improved more than any player I've ever seen. He worked more than any player I've ever seen," said Jon Teicher, UTEP's long-time radio announcer who called every game Hardaway played as a Miner.

“There was no way to know when he got here he was going to develop into the player he would become because his shot was so ugly. When he was younger, his shot looked like the Earth spinning on its axis, it spun sideways. But he fixed it. He was in the gym all the time."

He also had to acclimate to the Haskins system, which wasn’t natural for him.

“Things Tim was really good at (in high school), he didn't get to do much at UTEP,” said Bradburd, who was an assistant at UTEP throughout Hardaway's college career. “He was already a great ballhandler, he could run the fast break, he had incredible dribble moves, but that wasn't the way we played at UTEP at that time.

“He learned to do things he might not have learned to do if he was in a run-and-gun, less disciplined program. He could do the things he could do in the pros the day he came to UTEP, but what he learned to do under coach Haskins was set up a halfcourt offense, how to help on defense.

“Chicago public-league is fast-paced, fast-break oriented. To play for Coach Haskins, he had to learn how to do things he hadn't been asked to do before. It rounded out his game. By the time he left he could do anything.”

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In today's NCAA there is some question if a player like Hardaway would have stayed so long at UTEP before finding the transfer portal.

"It's a lesson," Floyd said. "Some players come in, see a little adversity and transfer. He stayed in the gym, he lived in the gym. He stayed and fought."

Hardaway doesn’t use those terms in describing his time at UTEP. To him, it was more about inner peace and finding himself.

“The city, the people, the school, the professors,” he said. “Everybody. That was where I should be, where I should play. When you go through your life and you're successful, when everything falls into place and you're where you should be at, that was it — El Paso was where I should be.

“In El Paso, with Don Haskins and that crew, the assistants, the school and the people, it was right. It was where I fit.”

Teicher said Hardaway’s athleticism also helped.

“The thing that separated him at this level was his incredible physical strength,” Teicher said. “He was not the biggest, but his trunk, his upper body was so strong it allowed him to get into the paint where he could finish himself or set up others.

“He was uncannily strong. And his crossover dribble, he perfected that.”

'Nobody believed in Tim Hardaway more than Tim Hardaway did'

What never left him was the drive that led him to stardom at UTEP — 22.0 points a game by his senior year when he was the WAC Player of the Year — and being drafted 14th overall by the Golden State Warriors and coach Don Nelson.

There he became part of the famed Run TMC with Mitch Richmond and Chris Mullin and his ship was launched.

“The odds when you are 5-11 are really stacked against you," Bradburd said. “At the end, nobody believed in Tim Hardaway more than Tim Hardaway did.

“How do you keep a guy making a million dollars a year from being satisfied? Only the most competitive people can continue to be competitive when they are making a lot, a lot of money.

“Tim could never get over the feeling of being overlooked as a high school player. That fueled him for years and years.”

What he became known for was a move on full display as a Miner, a crossover dribble that became known as the “UTEP Two-Step.”

“I was just playing,” Hardaway said of his namesake play. “It was a move I had, it was effective. I didn't realize I was doing it. When people started talking about it, I was like, 'OK, maybe I have something.'

“I never went to it, I just played. I knew I could dribble, I knew I could get past people, I knew I could break presses, I knew I could dribble through pressure without it being stolen.

“That's the way I grew up, that confidence in dribbling. High school guys, college guys, NBA guys, they still do (the UTEP Two-Step) today.”

'Patience is a virtue'

Another legacy is his son, Tim Hardaway Jr., now a guard with the Dallas Mavericks. Tim Hardaway and his wife Yolanda also have two daughters and he’s involved with several business projects as well as scouting for the New York Knicks. He was previously a coach with the Detroit Pistons.

Even at the end of a long pro career the senior Hardaway still had snubs to fuel him. First eligible for the Hall of Fame in 2008, he was selected for induction this year.

“I was satisfied, very satisfied,” Hardaway said of the phone call in April where he learned his long road to Springfield was nearing completion. “Happy. Patience is a virtue. I'm happy my parents (Donald and Gwen) are still around and here to see it.

“There was a point (he was thinking he would never make it to the Hall), but I was thinking, I can't control what I can't control. Hey, hopefully it happens soon for my parents.”

It did. That patience Hardaway learned when he arrived in El Paso in 1985 is still paying dividends.

Bret Bloomquist can be reached at 915-546-6359; bbloomquist@elpasotimes.com; @Bretbloomquist on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Tim Hardaway basketball path through UTEP led to Hall of Fame