Tim Hardaway Jr. was scrolling on X, formerly known as Twitter, last week when he saw that he was close to passing his father, Basketball Hall of Famer Tim Hardaway Sr., on the all-time 3-pointers made list. He had no idea he was nearing the milestone and immediately tried to figure out how many games it would take. But the moment also forced the sharpshooting guard to pause and reminisce about playing with his father as a kid.
"It just reflects back to the times where we're in the backyard with all his friends," Hardaway Jr. told CBS Sports. "Me as a kid in middle school, high school, we're playing HORSE, shooting 3s, shooting 3s off the glass, shooting trick shots all the time. Me beating him a couple of times. I mean, it just goes back to all those childhood-type memories."
The moment of surpassing his father in the record books officially happened in the second quarter against the Denver Nuggets on Monday, when Hardaway Jr.'s second 3-pointer of the night gave him 1,543 triples over his 11-year career. Like the previous 1,542 3-pointers Hardaway Jr. had made since being selected No. 24 overall in the 2013 NBA Draft, it was shot with unwavering confidence and a silky smooth form -- a combination that rarely makes you question if it's going to find the bottom of the net.
Hardaway Sr. wasn't in attendance when it happened, but he spoke with great pride and pure joy about his son leading up to that night. "From a dad perspective, watching him do all this, I love it," Hardaway Sr. told CBS Sports. "You watch [Tyrese] Halliburton's dad, right, and how proud he is and how he jumps up and down and this and that. That's what I am inside. I'm jumping up and down inside."
But in the midst of his happiness about his son's accomplishment, Hardaway Sr. is also quick to note how different the league was when he played.
"You know, when you said that he's going to break my record I'm like, well you know we shot 3s but we didn't shoot them like that," Hardaway Sr. told CBS Sports. "He's averaging what, eight to 10 3s a game? Sometimes he shoots 15 3s a game, but that's the way the game is today. But I'm just having fun. I love watching him play, I'm always ecstatic and always love watching [him]."
You can always count on a parent to keep you humble. But it's true, in the '90s and early '00s when Hardaway Sr. was breaking ankles with one of the nastiest crossovers at that time, shooting 3s was the tasty side dish to the main entree: good in small doses, always appreciated when it's there, but never relied upon to be the best thing on the plate. In 13 years of playing, Hardaway Sr. had only two seasons where he averaged seven or more 3-pointers a game. His son has reached that mark nine times, including a career-high 9.3 attempts through 23 games this year.
But even with fewer attempts, Hardaway Sr. was still a marksman of his era as a career 35.5% shooter from deep. He shot the ball with complete confidence that it was going in every time. So it's not entirely surprising to see that Hardaway Jr. embodies that same trait. Father and son may have vastly different playing styles, but confidence seems to run in the Hardaway family.
"That's what I watch, that's what I see that we have the same," Hardaway Sr. said. "That when we pull up, we know that when we're shooting that ball it's going in. It's not off, it's not an air ball, it's not a brick, that ball is going through that hoop. That's what I see in him."
Aside from the confidence, Hardaway Jr. credits his dad for staying on him about his shooting form. He always had a knack for pulling up from deep, but when a Hall of Famer -- who just so happens to be your dad -- has some advice, of course, you're going to listen.
"I used to shoot the ball below my face, near my chin area, and he always was telling me, we got to get you stronger to be able to get the ball above your head, so that guys won't be able to block your shot," Hardaway Jr. said. "That's one takeaway from him that I really concentrate on when it came to shooting the ball."
Hardaway Sr. calls his son a "natural-born shooter," and while the form might've needed some work at first he never had issues with knocking down shots, not in high school, college, or now. But as much as Junior wanted to follow in Senior's footsteps of making the league after growing up on the sidelines of NBA arenas, it wasn't something Hardaway Sr. ever envisioned would happen, at least not intentionally.
"I never thought Tim would be in the NBA," Hardaway Sr. said. "That never would have been my intentions in the first place. He started playing the game, and loving the game. He started growing, getting taller, he started believing in himself, getting stronger, listening to what I was trying to instruct in him to be a better ballplayer. And then, you know, after that, it went from him. He took on an identity, and he made himself who he is today with growth, basketball IQ and understanding how to play and being a leader out there on the floor. Once he made it, then I saw the intangibles in him and I saw how he has grown up and each year has grown to be a staple in the NBA."
Hardaway Jr. has turned himself into a candidate for Sixth Man of the Year. He's second in the league in bench scoring this season, averaging 17.3 points while shooting 36.6% from deep. He also leads the league in charges drawn with 16. But his shooting has always been his greatest asset, and on the Mavericks it has been crucial in every game this season, especially recently with several key players sidelined with injuries. He might be coming off the bench, but behind Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving he's Dallas' most important scorer.
In an offense that relies so heavily on making 3s, Hardaway Jr. is the ideal player to plug in next to Doncic and Irving. He's never going to hesitate to pull the trigger from deep, and he's built up enough chemistry with at least Doncic to know when to expect those wild passes we've come to expect from the young superstar. Hardaway Jr. is the type of player that if he sees a couple of 3-pointers go down, chances are he's going to have a night like he did against the Lakers recently where he went 5-of-10 from downtown. Even in that game, Hardaway Jr. felt like he should've made more. "I should have been like 7-for-10 from 3 against [the Lakers] but you know, that's me right there," Hardaway said. "I'm never really satisfied."
Now that Hardaway Jr. has passed his dad on one list, the next thing he could shoot for is seasons played. He would need to play three more years after this one to get there, something that Hardaway Sr. thinks is very attainable."When I see him in his 11th year, you know, I think he'd go another -- how he plays and if he stays healthy he could go 15, 16 years in the league easy," Hardaway Sr. said.
It might be all praise between the two Hardaways but again, that confidence is ever present. So, of course, when figuring out who would win in a 3-point contest between the two of them, neither conceded.
"I'd win," Hardaway Sr. said. "Yeah, no question I'd win. Because I'd get to talking smack. And I'd be saying a lot of other things that I can't say. But I'd be talking smack, getting him off his game and I'll be shooting bank shots and all that type of stuff. I'd be doing all types of stuff."
Hardaway Jr. disagrees.
"I would win, of course, I would win," Hardaway Jr. said. "He wouldn't win right now. Back in the day he probably would, but not right now."
As far as that trash talking Senior mentioned, Hardaway Jr. says it wouldn't change things. "That wouldn't even help because he couldn't even get the ball to the rim right now."
That debate may go unsettled, as Hardaway Sr. said his playing days, even just for a game of pickup, are long behind him. He'll settle instead for watching and cheering his son on as he continues to follow in his footsteps.
