Getty Tim Hardaway Sr.
Tim Hardaway Sr. set the record straight after his appearance on FS1’s The Carton Show discussing his former team Miami Heat and his now former employer New York Knicks caused a stir online.
“I quit two weeks ago because I couldn’t go on TV and talk about basketball, and I love talking about basketball, and I couldn’t do that working for the Knicks. I couldn’t talk about different teams. I couldn’t talk about different players. I’m ecstatic and enjoying myself each and every morning on Fox Sports 1. It didn’t have anything to do with anything else but me being happy,” Hardaway, Sr. told the Sun Sentinel.
The Knicks hired Hardaway before the season started. But he formally resigned to pursue a TV job that coincided with the Knicks facing the Heat, rekindling their old heated rivalry, which he was part of.
“I wanted to do TV. I wanted to do my own thing,” Hardaway, Sr. told the Sun Sentinel. “It was just a job to scout. That was it. That’s all. Everybody is trying to make a big deal about working for one team and talking about another.
Hardaway, Sr. played for the Heat from 1996 to 2001. He scored 38 points in Game 7 of the 1997 Eastern Conference semifinals to eliminate the Knicks. He was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2022.
No Bad Blood
While Hardaway, Sr. was part of the Knicks-Heat rivalry in the past, he did not harbor any ill feelings towards the New York franchise after his playing days were over.
His longstanding relationship with William Wesley, the Knicks’ senior advisor, has led him to the scouting job with the Knicks after previously working as a Detroit Pistons assistant coach under former Heat coach Stan Van Gundy.
“It was professional work,” Hardaway told the Sun Sentinel of his previous scouting role with the Knicks. “It was new people doing great things there. The future there is high, which I’m happy for.”
“You know, when it comes to Knicks-Heat, of course, it’s emotions. It brings up the past and everything like that. They never said anything about my son playing for the Knicks. I had a job to do there, and I did it.”
The Knicks drafted his son, Tim Hardaway, Jr., in 2013. Hardaway, Jr. was traded to the Atlanta Hawks in 2015 for Jerian Grant. He returned to the Knicks in 2017 via a $71 million, four-year deal in free agency, which the Hawks did not match. The Knicks traded him again, along with Kristaps Porzinigis, to the Dallas Mavericks in 2019.
Tim Hardaway Sr. Picks Heat if Jimmy Butler Returns
Despite his bias toward the Heat, Hardaway, Sr. views their chances to advance past the Knicks will hinge on Jimmy Butler’s health. Butler missed Game 2, which the Knicks barely won, with a sprained ankle.
“When I’m on TV, I’m fair to both teams,” Hardaway told the Sun Sentinel. “And look, if Jimmy is out, it’s going to be tough. That’s a no-brainer. If he’s in, the Heat have a 90 percent chance of winning the series, point blank.”
“Me and Craig, on the Carton Show, he’s a Knicks fan, I’m a Heat fan. And we just go back and forth, and it’s fun. And I hope nobody takes it too seriously. We have fun, and we enjoy ourselves.”