Tim Hardaway Sr., Draymond Green, and Baron Davis react to LeBron's claim he'd be unguardable against Michael Jordan. Hardaway confirms seeing a 16-17-year-old LeBron explode in a 3-on-2 fast break fresh out of a wrist cast. Hardaway also recalls inventing the U-Tap two-step through basement drills in Chicago and being mentored by Isaiah Thomas as a kid.
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You spoke about being from Chicago. We all heard about the Chicago runs. I had the opportunity to go to a couple of 'em in my day, which is after the heyday of 'em. But Bron recently was talking the other day about getting on the court with MJ being there.
I was there.
He was guardable, and I know you were there.
I was there.
So I want to know, was he really as unguardable as he say he was the other day in the clip that he was talking about being unguardable in that pickup game?
You talking about Mike unguardable?
No, was Bron as unguardable as he— Bron said he was unguardable that day he got out there.
Yes, yes. I was listening to Maverick. He was talking about LeBron being at the— at their We wanted to see what he had and what he could do. He didn't do it all the time because he had broke his wrist and it was like a week after he took the cast off. He came in, he was playing and he came down on a fast break and we thought he was going to pass. The motherfucker took off from the free throw line. Mm-hmm. He just took off. He missed, he missed, but the motherfucker just said, "Boom!" I mean, just like that. We thought he was gonna pass. It was a 3-on-2. We thought he was gonna pass, and it was like in slow motion, the motherfucker just took off. And I was like, "Damn." And he just missed, and the ball slipped out his hand. He missed. But I said, "You know, that's incredible. That's incredible." Draymond Green. I mean, for a 16, 17-year-old kid to come in and do some shit like that. And he was making shots, playing defense, passing the ball. You could feel his presence. You could feel his presence then. You knew that he was going to be that motherfucker in the NBA. You knew that. That's what's up.
That's what's up.
Wow, so for everybody out there who say Bron be lying about all these stories he told, you just heard from one OG. And you know the OG right here, he ain't hold nobody.
No, no, no, no, no. I'm gonna keep it real.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, he was real. He was real in that '16, '17, that thing was '17, '18, whatever. He was real. Yeah, yes.
Hey Tim, talk about Isaiah Thomas being your favorite player. We got a clip where you hit him with the U-Tap two-step. I need to know, one, that moment, but also the origination of the U-Tap two-step. How did that come about?
Well, it came about 'cause everybody be like, you know, we had gangs in Chicago and I didn't like going out because that's when people started shooting up places and backyards and all that type of stuff and gangs. You know, motherfuckers following you in cars and all this type. It was crazy. It was wild. So I'm still in high school. And so I just used to work on my game. I had an unfinished basement downstairs. We didn't have shit. We didn't have computers. We had 3 channels on the TV.
Yeah.
Yeah, we had 3 channels on the TV. And it got stale. So I used to go downstairs and I had two beams and I just used to work on behind the back dribbles, spin moves, in and out moves, crossover, playing like I'm— it was like an 8-foot ceiling. I used to make layups coming down, doing some stuff and just working on my game downstairs for about an hour. Wow. And it was snow, you know, it was cold outside. You didn't go outside either. So I'm just out there working on my, just working on ball handling. So that's where my ball handling came in. And I used to go outside during the summer and play against the guys outside. And we used to have this on the sidewalk. It was like if you could steal a ball from a person, it was like 4 people. And I used to dribble between 4 or 5 people, hold this guy up. Yeah. And if you go, And if you go on the grass, that's out of bounds. You gotta get the ball up.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's out of bounds. I used to control motherfuckers, push motherfuckers off and just do all that type of stuff. I used to go back and forth for about 3 or 4 times and then I'd like, I'd get it stolen just so, you know, game go on and shit like that. Yeah.
So you had some friends.
Yeah, I had some friends that I could, you know, work on my shit with.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I call them test dummies. Right.
Yeah. I love it. Yeah. So I went to go see Isaiah. My coach took me out. I was in 6th grade, no, 7th grade. Coach took me out of school. He said, we went to the amphitheater. He said, I want you to check out number 11. I said, all right, cool. St. Joe. So I'm checking him out. I'm like, wow, that motherfucker cold in my mind and stuff. He said, what you think? I said, he cold-blooded. He nice. And he said, "You play like him." I said, "Get the fuck outta here." I said, "Oh, you know what? My bad, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I said my bad, I'm sorry." I said, "No, I don't play like him." He said, "I'm gonna tell you something. You play just like him. You got the confidence like him. You control the team like him. You make shots like him. You do all the things that he's doing right now just in 7th grade." And at that particular time when he told me that, I started watching Isaiah, patterning my game. When he went to Indiana, I steady watched him, steady watched him, and just patterning my game. After he came back for summer league, watched him, knew they scheduled, knew when he was going to play. I'm there an hour ahead of time. I'm in the front row watching him play.
Wow.
And so he kept in touch with me. Somebody told him, about me. And we was at a high school summer league game and we playing and they said, "Yeah, we got a surprise for y'all. Whoever make the Final Four, you know, the teams, they come in and we got a special guest for you." And somebody told me and I told my team, I said, "I don't know what y'all gonna do, but I'm gonna be here every game and I'm making the Final Four." Wow. I'm making the Final Four. And Isaiah came in there and talked. And after he talked, everybody's like, you know, everybody's about to leave. He said, "Hey, Tim Hardaway, let me talk to you." You wanna talk to me? He's like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah." He talked to me, he said, "Yeah, somebody told me that you've been patterning your game after me. I've been checking you out. I've been keeping tabs on you and stuff like that." And I was just blown away. He just said, "Keep doing what you're doing. Go to school, get your education." "I don't know if you're going to make it, nothing like that." But he said, "Just use basketball to get your education, but you playing well, man, and keep up the good work and keep your confidence and keep playing." I said, "Okay." Wow. And so we came to Detroit my rookie year. He came to pick me up at the hotel and went to his house, had a pregame meal. And on the drive back to the hotel, I'm like, how am I going to tell this man, I appreciate you taking me to your house and feeding me, but I'm still going to bust your ass.
Yeah.
And so before I got it out, he said, now, you know, because took you out for pregame meal to the house and everything and talked to you, I hope you don't take it easy. I was like, you know what? I was going, I've been trying to figure out how to tell you this, but yeah, I'm not gonna take it easy. He said, that's what I want to hear. And we played, we beat him here too in Detroit. And yeah, man, I always wanted to play against him, man. And it's like the highlight of your whole career when you play Yes, that dude. That's how it was, bro. Man, man, it's, it's, it's, it's, I know how you feel, Baron, but man, it was, it was, it was like, wow. I mean, it was one of those moments. It was one of those moments.
Absolutely. Idols become rivals, man. We can't thank you enough, OG. That was incredible just hearing the stories.
