SAN FRANCISCO — They’re Stroll TMC now. Chris Mullin has a bum left foot, Mitch Richmond not often shoots a basketball lately and Tim Hardaway arrived for this on-court reunion by patting the ample midsection of his tight-fitting jersey.
“Maaaaan, we used to run round all horny,’’ Hardaway, 58, lamented as he stepped into the Golden State Warriors apply facility. “Not now. It’s all pot stomach.”
Regardless of their infirmities, the mere sight of Hardaway, Richmond and Mullin reuniting to launch photographs once more was sufficient to quicken the heartbeat and widen the eyes. Someplace, a long-ago defender felt a disturbance within the pressure and woke up with out figuring out why.
As soon as upon a time, these three had been Run TMC, and their too-brief Warriors profession regarded like one lengthy quick break.
In 1990-91, their second and closing season collectively, they fashioned the NBA’s highest-scoring trio by averaging 72.5 factors per sport. (The Warriors averaged 116.6 factors per sport that season, second within the league.) All three completed among the many league’s prime dozen scorers that season, with Mullin rating eighth (25.7 ppg), Richmond tenth (23.9) and Hardaway eleventh (23.9).
All of them wound up within the Naismith Basketball Corridor of Fame.
“We had a sick run,” mentioned Richmond, 59.
The Warriors secretly obtained the band again collectively for a video shoot to assist promote the NBA All-Star Weekend within the Bay Space subsequent week. Mullin, Hardaway and Richmond participated in a 3-point taking pictures contest, with Baron Davis representing the franchise’s “We Consider” period.
This was Run TMC’s acoustic set. As a result of there have been no followers within the constructing for this Dec. 20 shootout, each bounce, swish and wisecrack reverberated off the partitions like a bygone soundtrack.
All-Star Weekend is coming to The Bay, so some legends needed to get within the zone.@starrylemonlime Alumni 3-Level Shootout is now LIVE at https://t.co/PkfXF4i4MG pic.twitter.com/VR3LEnIUTP
— Golden State Warriors (@warriors) February 13, 2025
A very powerful floor rule for the 3-point competitors hardly wanted to be spelled out.
“Stroll to the subsequent rack slowly,” Mullin, 61, defined, “so nobody will get damage.”
Who would win? That was a subject the gamers kicked round, too. Richmond and Mullin reasoned that Davis ought to be the favourite, regardless that he made simply 32 p.c of his profession 3s. He obtained the nod as a result of he was a mere 45.
Davis, who grew up idolizing Hardaway, wasn’t having it.
“I’m already at an obstacle,” Davis protested, scanning his opponents. “Legend, legend, legend — and me.”
Hardaway, in the meantime, picked Mullin to win all of it. And that had nothing to do with the truth that Mullin was carrying a pair of custom-made Stephen Curry sneakers.
“He doesn’t even want these on, he can nonetheless shoot,” Hardaway mentioned. “If Steph Curry himself had been right here, I’d nonetheless be taking Chris Mullin.”
Because the gamers stretched out earlier than this turn-back-the-clock competitors — let’s name it Re-Run TMC — any fears about shifting too shortly had been put to relaxation. “The slowest 3-point contest I’ve ever been part of,’’ Richmond cracked.
Their well-known nickname owes its roots to Run DMC, rap pioneers who discovered stardom within the mid-Eighties and in 2009 turned simply the second hip-hop group inducted into the Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame. For the basketball model, TMC refers back to the initials of their first names — Tim, Mitch and Chris. On at the present time, nonetheless, it may have stood for the place it damage most: Tendons, Muscle groups and Cartilage.
Mullin regarded the smoothest throughout warm-ups, shortly recapturing that candy and deadly left-handed launch. Then once more, Mullin was only a few photographs in when he fretted about needing a headscarf due to the sweat gathering on his brow like a storm cloud.
He’d been taking warm-up photographs for all of three minutes.
Mullin: Hey, Mitch.
Richmond: Yeah?
Mullin: I’m drained.
However as extra warm-up photographs began to fall and the illusion of competitors started to simmer, TMC settled into a well-recognized zone. And for a number of superb hours in an empty gymnasium in December, an exhilarating period of Warriors basketball was off and operating once more.
Tim Hardaway, Chris Mullin, Baron Davis and Mitch Richmond. (Picture courtesy of Golden State Warriors)
First spherical: ‘I obtained bamboozled!
The motion opened with Davis versus Richmond on one facet of the bracket and Hardaway versus Mullin on the opposite.
The Warriors’ manufacturing workforce requested Davis to deal with the participant introductions for his or her digital camera. The one instruction was to not curse. Davis obtained two dozen phrases into his ad-libbed remarks earlier than saying, “I’m simply speaking s—.”
“They mentioned you couldn’t cuss!” Richmond mentioned.
“So be certain it’s edited,” Davis replied.
Because it seems, the primary take was just for rehearsal anyway. On Take 2, Davis nailed it:
Guess what, I’m right here with Bay Space Legends, Warriors Alumni, TMC.
Chris Mullin, Mitch “The Rock” Richmond, Tim Hardaway, and I’m yours actually Baron Davis.
All-Star weekend coming to San Francisco. The Starry Alumni three-point shootout is going on now.
When it was over, Mullin thanked Davis for remembering to name it the “alumni” contest. “Decrease the expectations,” Mullin defined.
Gamers shot from three completely different racks that includes 5 balls apiece. There was one rack within the left nook, one on the prime of the arc and one in the precise nook. Every make counted for one level. Alongside the best way, a pair of “cash balls” counted for 2 factors apiece.
“Let’s get this factor crackin’!” Hardaway mentioned, though he may need been referring to their joints.
Fired up, leadoff shooter Davis promptly missed his first 4 photographs, none of them significantly shut.
“He’s warming up!” Mullin yelled as encouragement. “He doesn’t come alive till the fourth quarter!”
However there can be no comeback. Davis went 5-for-17 in his journey across the arc, with the cash ball permitting him to salvage six factors.
“Six?! You set me up by making me go first. I obtained bamboozled!” Davis cracked. “Do I get a do-over? That is on digital camera.”
“Let me see how I do first,” Richmond replied, “after which we’ll be doing over all the pieces.”
Richmond fared simply positive, ending robust to win his first-round matchup 9-6. On the opposite facet, Hardaway was sad together with his seeding committee. “I hate taking pictures in opposition to this man,” he mentioned of Mullin.
Hardaway had purpose to be involved. He missed his first shot so badly that laughter erupted among the many others. “Oh, my goodness,’’ one in every of them mentioned. It didn’t precisely choose up from there. Hardaway missed his first 9 (!) photographs. He regarded so rusty that they didn’t want a water jug on the sideline, they wanted an oil can.
“I instructed you I haven’t shot in three years!” Hardaway yelled as a means of answering the mounting snickers.
Ultimately, his tenth try went in. “I’m on a roll!” he mentioned. However he was not. Hardaway made only one extra shot the remainder of the best way and completed with two factors.
The efficiency was so scattershot that Mullin obtained somewhat cheeky and requested if he even wanted to trouble together with his spherical. “Do I get a bye?” the previous Dream Teamer mentioned. Then, as if to rub it in, Mullin drilled 8 of his first 11 photographs en path to a 12-2 win. “A grimy dozen,” he mentioned of his level whole.
“At age 60!” Hardaway marveled.
“61,” Mullin corrected.
Mitch Richmond, Chris Mullin and Tim Hardaway pose for a photograph earlier than Mullin’s jersey retirement ceremony in 2012. (Kelley L. Cox / USA At present Sports activities)
Closing spherical: Mullin vs. Richmond
By now, there was somewhat zest to the motion. Voices had been louder, the main focus sharper. Hardaway and Davis, having been eradicated, shouted encouragement. They wished a present and rooted exhausting for Richmond, the underdog, to place up a combat.
Richmond got here out firing, hitting three of his first 4. His fifth shot virtually fell, too, however the ball went out and in.
“That’s going to harm you!” Hardaway mentioned.
“What’s going to harm him,” Davis joked, “is bending right down to get the ball.”
Certainly, Richmond went chilly from there, lacking eight of his subsequent 9 photographs.
“Hey, Mitch. Come on!” Davis lastly mentioned. “You’re going to make it to the finals to do that?”
Richmond’s closing tally of 5 allowed Mullin to take his flip feeling assured once more. He walked towards the rack casually, making it clear this was a executed deal.
“I gotta beat 5?” Mullin mentioned, half-bored. “What are the percentages?”
Mullin was a tad sluggish out of the gate hitting two of the primary six. With some wishful considering, Hardaway introduced: “It is likely to be a sport.”
Mullin’s retort got here within the type of hitting his subsequent 4 photographs and including his whole out loud — three, 4, 5, six. At one level, Mullin pointed towards the balls remaining rack and began counting those he hadn’t shot but — 10, 11, 12 …
Mullin didn’t fairly get that far, however he did sufficient to seize the crown with a 9-5 final-round victory.
In all, the 4 Warriors legends mixed to make 42 of their 102 photographs. How did it really feel?
“It’s like using a motorcycle … however the bike is form of janky,” Richmond mentioned. “And the bike is simply as previous as we’re.”
Mullin heard that evaluation and laughed.
“The bike has no seat, no steering and the handlebars are crooked,” he added.
An image-perfect ending
As a surreal contact, the competitors performed out in a venue the place footage of the previous regarded down on the current. The partitions are adorned with photos of Run TMC in its prime. Mullin, Richmond and Hardaway even recreated one of many group photographs for a then-and-now comparability.
How usually do they get collectively?
“Not sufficient,” Hardaway mentioned.
“Not sufficient,” Richmond echoed ruefully.
Mullin lives within the East Bay and works as an analyst for NBC Sports activities Bay Space. Richmond lives in Los Angeles, not removed from Davis. Hardaway lives in Detroit and attends many of the Detroit Pistons’ dwelling video games the place his son, Tim Jr., averages virtually 11 factors per sport.
One other picture overlooking the Warriors’ apply court docket options Davis hovering for his well-known dunk over Andrei Kirilenko within the 2007 playoffs, the best jam in Golden State historical past.
Davis mentioned he owed that second to the ability of Run TMC, which impressed him as a youngster in Southern California.
“Tim Hardaway doesn’t know this, however I used to put on size-10 Tim Hardaway footwear once I was in highschool,” he mentioned.
The scale 10 is the necessary half. As a result of on the time, Davis had dimension 11.5 toes.
“I used to simply be like, ‘F— it dude, my toes can damage,” he mentioned. “Yeah, man, I used to be squeezing into them Tim Hardaways.”
Think about Davis’ pleasure when Hardaway and the remainder of Run TMC served as his mentors upon Davis’ arrival with the Warriors in 2005.
“I used to be coming from New Orleans, the place all people had checked out on me,” Davis mentioned. “And when you’ve got legends who imagine in you if you stroll in that gymnasium on daily basis — and also you see them in individual — you may’t disappoint them.
“And in the end, that’s what ‘We Consider’ it was about. We had been enjoying for our legacy and their previous, We wished to do what Run TMC did. In order that was our purpose and motivation.”
This appeared like a becoming technique to elevate a toast to the TMC period.
That they had a tremendous run.
(Prime photograph: Courtesy of Golden State Warriors)