Jan. 5, 2012
Tim Hardaway, UTEP great and former NBA All-Star, will return to El Paso for the Miners' C-USA home opener against Houston on Saturday. His number (#10) will be retired at halftime. Hardaway took time to reflect on his UTEP career with utepathletics.com.
How did you end up playing at UTEP?
I wasn't highly recruited. Everybody around Chicagoland thought I was too short. A lot of the local schools - DePaul, Illinois, Northern Illinois, Bradley -- wanted to go with the bigger name guys like Tracy Dildy, Nick Anderson and Kendall Gill. But somebody told [UTEP assistant coach] Russ Bradburd about me, and that's who came out to see me. He gave me the whole lowdown on Texas-El Paso, 1966, Don Haskins and Nate Archibald. He told me coach Haskins loved point guards, and it went from there.
Coach Haskins came to see me. He said `I like your style and how you play, and we're interested in you.' I was the first person he had come to see in a long time. At that particular time he really didn't go to see ball players. But he had heard so much about me, he wanted to see me for himself. My coach and I drove about six hours to the Saluki Shootout [in Carbondale, Ill.] to watch UTEP play. I liked their style of play and what the Bear stood for. It was good for me to get away from the big city and go to a college town. It slowed me down and made me focus on the things I needed to focus on -- school and playing ball. It helped me out tremendously.
The people in El Paso are very generous. They open their arms to anybody and everybody and they're very, very kind. That was great for me as a young man coming from a big city. When you have nobody to turn to, you have people who are kind and gracious and treat you like family. It was just good for me to be around those types of people.
Take us through your career at UTEP.
My first year was kind of tough. The director of intramurals at Memorial Gym said `Tim, you've got to come in every day and shoot 500 jump shots a day. We know you can dribble and shoot, but you've got to be able to catch and shoot.' I worked very hard to get that aspect of my game together.
Each year I went home and played all summer long against the best players in the world -- NBA players, college players and European players. That's how I got better. I was learning from them and they were learning from me. I came back my sophomore year and had a lot of confidence in myself. I was running the team and making sure we had a chance to win each and every ball game. I played in Pro Am tournaments the next summer. I won a couple of MVP awards and turned a couple of the NBA guys' heads, even Michael Jordan's. I knew that my career was taking off then.
When I came back to school, everybody saw a different kind of person. They saw a confident person, a leader. Each year I showed coach Haskins that I was eager to learn. I understood that he wanted me to run the team and be a leader and make his job easier each and every day. That's what I tried to do.
What was coach Haskins like?
A lot of kids today don't take the time to listen to a coach. When a coach is yelling and screaming, they look at that instead of listening to the message. I grew up differently. I grew up with hard-nosed coaches who taught me the fundamentals of basketball. They taught me how to play the game with a lot of confidence. They taught me not to be scared, to go in fearless.
If you'd like to play this game, there's a lot of discipline involved. With Don Haskins, it was hooting and hollering and him getting in your face and making you understand that it's going to be his way or the highway. He helped me understand how to run a basketball team.
Sure, we went back and forth sometimes. That's what sports is all about. Sometimes your coach isn't going to like what you do or say, and sometimes you're not going to like what your coach says or does to you. We co-existed with one another, and we understood what each other wanted on the basketball court. These coaches want you to win and they're going to push you to the limit.
What do you think of Tim Floyd, who coached you for one season at UTEP (1985-86)?
Tim is a great coach and person. I'm happy that he's back in the UTEP family, and I think everybody should be patient. He's a great recruiter and a great coach. Don't give him too much grief and just wait, because he's going to get things back to where they used to be.
I had a conversation with him during my first year at UTEP. I was in his office crying because I was homesick and I wasn't playing much. And he said, `I have this conversation with everybody. The only thing I can tell you is that it's time to grow up. It's time to grow up as a man and as a human being. Your parents have trusted us to take care of you, and they know that you're in great hands. But if you leave, what will your parents say? You don't want to be a quitter. You want to finish what you started. I know it's tough, but you have to grow up right now.' And that helped me out tremendously, because he didn't talk to me as a kid. He talked to me as a parent, like I was his son. I remember that conversation like it was yesterday. Without him I probably wouldn't have stuck it out. He told me that everything was going to be all right, and it was.
I'm just happy that we have somebody back here who cares about the university and isn't trying to use it to go somewhere that they think is better. Tim Floyd is going to get UTEP Basketball back to the way it was in the late `80s and early `90s.
You played on four NCAA Tournament teams at UTEP. Which one did you like the best?
All of them. They all had different characters. We came from all over the place - L.A., Philly, Chicago, New York -- and came together and gelled on the court. We all wanted to win and wanted each other to excel. Each year I learned from different guys and they learned from me. I learned from Wayne Campbell. He was everybody's confidante. Then when he left, Antonio Davis was everybody's confidante. Chris Blocker was crazy, but he was smart and crazy ... if that makes any sense. Everybody had a personality and we all went out there and played for one another and had fun around one another.
Who are you closest to now?
I'm close to Wayne Campbell, I'm close to Prince Stewart. I'm close to all of the Chicago guys - Ralph Davis, Johnny Melvin, Antoine Gillespie, Carl Davis. I see all of them in the summer time and we always reminisce. I have a relationship with Antonio Davis and Greg Foster. I still talk to Juden Smith and Pony [Luster Goodwin]. I just know where everybody is and everybody texts or e-mails each other. I still talk to Mike Richmond. He and Soup [Campbell] hung out here when the Miami Heat hung my jersey. I keep in touch with a lot of folks.
What is your favorite moment from your UTEP career?
It would have to be when I was a sophomore and we won at Arizona in double overtime [in the NCAA Tournament]. That was probably the best, best game. There was a bunch of them. New Mexico State ... man, we had a tough time playing up there. I was there with the cup toss at New Mexico my freshman year, and I was like `Wow.'
What do you miss the most about UTEP and El Paso?
The people. They've very friendly and down to earth. I love to talk to them, and love to see them when I come back. They welcome you with open arms. They understand that you're far away from home and they want you to be comfortable where you are. That's the way the city is. Every time I come back, it's just fond memories. Very fond memories.
What does it mean to have your number retired?
It means a lot. It means that they recognize what I've done for the university, in the NBA and outside the community. It feels good. A lot of people behind me are going to be recognized too. We all came there and had fun and were coached by a legend, and a lot of people don't know that. Coach Haskins was a true legend that changed the game of basketball in everybody's eyes, across the world. Without him I don't think basketball would be as it is today, and wouldn't have gone as far as it has after what he did in 1966.
