All The SmokeTim Hardaway Sr. Weighs In On State Of Miami Heat, Chicago Runs w/ MJ & LeBron, Signature Crossover
'The Crossover King' has entered the chat. On this weeks episode of ALL THE SMOKE, Matt and Stak are joined by 2022 Hall of Fame inductee, Tim Hardaway Sr. to talk all things hoops. Hardaway weighs in on the current state of the Miami Heat and looks back on his time with the franchise. Plus, he discusses Tim Hardaway Jr. playing in the NBA Finals and being so close to winning a title with the Mavericks this year. He also shares stories from winning a gold medal at the 2000 olympics and talks about the creation of his signature crossover, 'The Utep Two-Step'.
Hardaway reflects on Chicago summer runs with LeBron & MJ and the Chicago basketball scene. Additionally, he talks about the creation and impact of 'Run TMC', and the 1997 brawl between the Knicks & Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals.
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You can't be from Texas. And I know about Tim Hardaway man the Texas two step. He was big growing up for me, you know, to see the cross over, to see the player.
He grew up to be.
The shoes and everything coming out of Texas was me shoe mean shoe game. If you didn't know about the shoes and you didn't go wearing Pro wings or something, but I was wearing Pro Wings. Yeah I did too, but that's before Tim Hardaway. When Tim Hardaway came out, we could buy shoot, we had we had a.
Live not over here yet.
Oh, I probably know what I used to do, Jack, No bullshit is I used.
To get one good pair of shoes when I started getting air Maxes, maybe like ninety to one hundred and ten, and every two months I popped the aar sole take them hose back.
So I had probably four pairs during your school year.
So you were super intelligent. I had to I played warm to warm to the block.
I did everyone everywhere one pair of shoes, and today was I had one pair for like four years.
Du just didn't discuss it now, but I think it was obviously dope. I mean, we got, you know, be third to run TMC. Yes, you know what I mean, all we need is money. Quit dodgy, But I actually motherly hasn't been dodged. I've seen Molley when I was working with the Kings and he was where Golden State because we in the Bay, we had the same work area.
So he definitely said he wants to come on the show.
So we definitely got to get Chris Mullen, Yes, sir, but to have Tim Hardaway, you know what he meant in college with the what he meant with the crossover run TMC.
You know him talking about his son.
You know, we're both dads with you know, kids at hoop and what it was like having to watch his son sit on the bench during the finals and getting a fresh start to Detroit now.
So really excited about him.
I wish we had more time with him, but almost felt like we almost had to rush him a little bit because.
Sir Oscar was sitting on.
There was a couple of questions I wanted to ask Tim, like who were his toughest point guard matchups and everything, But man, I think for the most part, yes, a la if it happened, But I think for the most part, man, we got a lot out of him. He had a good time. Man, I'm looking for you guys checking this episode out.
What up y'all?
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There were calling on all our fans for this one.
Jack. This is special man.
Over five years of work in two hundred episodes.
Releasing October eighth, is the All the Smoke Coffee table Book. Been working hard on it. Were super excited. We used guys to see it. But October eighth, we're releasing our first All the Smoke Coffee table Book.
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We ain't asked them to me favorite. You're asking for a favor now, man, Perfect holiday book, Birthday book, Coffee table book, Dennis book, Jim book. Put that book anywhere. Man, it's versus Tile All the Smoke Coffee table book. So go get your book now. It's available at Amazon or in the link in our bio. Welcome back All the Smoke. We're out here in La right now. One of my all time favorite players. Someone we've been trying to chase down for a minute. I grew up here in a lot of bottom growing up in Texas. Yeah, I mean, five time NBA All Star, five time All NBA, one of the originators of the crossover being Shy Town Hall of Famer, Ship Talker, Sun God Game. But we're talking to Pops today, man, Welcome to the show. Tim Hardaway, Thank you.
It's been a minute. You know, we've been trying to get together. Time have been right.
Yes, I bumped in to you the air for we we talked about it. Yeah, you like.
Yeah, you're gonna come in like yeah, we're trying to make it happen.
Yeah, So how's life?
I seen you out here. You are your runner, you run around the track still. I see you out here keeping your cardio up and your health right.
What's going on?
I gotta keep mccardi r right. Kendall Gill, Chicago guy. He implemented sixty forty things from his lou Hiss and god Rich his soul from Illinois. They used to do that right before they went into the n C Douba tournament. And it's you run sixty jog forty and it's a continuous run and it's a real nice workout, and you do it on turf. You don't do it. You're on your knee, cap oh, weight on your hibs, your kneecap, your back, everything. So you know, it's a good way of staying shape.
Kender Gill, he's still boxing. He can go twelve rounds.
Right now, right now, right now, right.
I heard he was always ultimate shape fighter.
Your family almost got a ring last season. Yes, Junior was with Dallas. I want to talk to because we were talking about before you came in. He went from someone they paid that was playing a lot and then all of a sudden just wasn't playing no more. And you said a few things as a father, and I'm a father of kids who play, so I know how that gets. What was first of all as a father with a son in the game, what was it like trying to just keep his mental into it And what were those conversations like during that time where he should have been out there and just wasn't.
I said, it's tough, first of all, as a pops. Is tough knowing that your son is supposed to be out there and you can help the team win. He knowing that he can help the team win, but for some reason, they're not telling nobody Jason Kidd Nico are not telling nobody why he's not playing. What's the deal? And that's the hard part. If a you know, if a coach come to you, or if a general man is coming to you and say, hey, this the reason why I'm not playing you. I said, we could take that, we grown men, and we could take that, but it's disrespectful to me as I played with you on the two thousand Olympic team. We got gold together, win Hall of Fame together, we all in its fraternity together, and you are coaching my son and you don't have the dignit, dignity to go to my son and just have him in the room and talk to him and just say, hey, this x y Z that's why I'm not playing, and we could with that. I'm just saying, you know, that's just disrespect to me and my son. But I told my son, I said, hey, I understand what you're going through. I could see it in your face. Just root for your teammates, be professional, be professional about it. Keep doing what you're supposed to do in practice because you never know when your number might be called. But another thing, you know, I won't say. I won't say this. People say when he gets in the game, he's supposed to shoot the ball, he's supposed to make shots. You both know rhythm. It's rhythm. Rhythm, it's rhythm. If you don't get the ball three four, five minutes, you just playing defense. When you when you get the ball, you gotta get your rhythm together.
I don't need to cut you off.
For those that don't know, though, when coaches don't want to play on their team or when they want it, they trying to ship a guy, the person they do is throw them and throw him in garbage minutes. When They know he don't have enough time taxi show what he can do, so he looks bad in those five those five minutes, so that gives the team the reason to trade them. That they do that on purpose. They've done it to Alla Night, that to a lot of stars. So a lot of y'all don't know that. They put you into garbage time because they know you're a rhythm guy and want They know you don't want to go in at all, so you look bad and that gives them the incentive to trade you.
Go ahead, when you're just sitting in the corner, you just go sit in the corner. I know Luca bad boy one on one, he's a bad man. But if like how howser from the Celtics when he comes in, what do the Celtics find it? They we run an offense for you right away, right now, right now, right now. They run in place for Clay right now, right now, right now. And I hope they do run place for Clay this year. You know, it's all up to Luca, because Luca running the whole show there, you know. So if you don't run offense, your guys are just gonna stand there and it's and it's gonna be problems. It's gonna be problems and people you're not in rhythm. So when when they was talking about my son not playing and he coming in and he not shooting the ball, well, first of all, you got to get the ball. You gotta get the ball. First of all, you gotta have somebody says some picks for you. You gotta you gotta run some offense for me. And then another thing is you got to get in the game. If you're not in the game, you can't shoot, you can't play. So so so it was frustrating for him to understand, to know that he could go out there and help the team, but for some reason, he didn't play. So I had to. I had to talk to him. I was dead, talking to him, I was dead, consoling him I was dead, just like a father's supposed to be, and making him understand it's gonna be alright. It's better days to come.
So new chapter now for him and Detroit. Yes, a team that hasn't played well. They got a new coach, jb a friend of the program hoops and and expectations for him this year to kind of find his rhythm again. Yeah, try, He's still younger.
Yeah, he turned in what he'll be thirty three next year already already, Man, they've been heavier than my way heavier.
And when you think about that, I mean obviously first bout, Hall of Famer, All Star, All NBA, and just where the money is today for players.
I talked to a lot of former players when I was playing. They would be like, I would give up my rings to make the money. That's when we was making the money that we was making, you know, like four or five million dollars here in there. But I just think, you know, they set the stage for us, you know Magic, you know, Bob Coosey, who else, Rick Barry, those guys set the stage for us, Bob McAdoo, you know. So it's it's when I am talking, you know, it frustrates them, but they got to understand that era was that era, and what David S. Thurn did was turned everything around and made it globally. And when it went global, everything is everything now and social media.
You know, if.
Socbody's a brand now, Yes, everybody's a brand now. And when I see the older players that played before us, I always give them homage, you know, I always talk to them, always and the young guys. You know, a lot of these young guys don't know these guys and they need to, you know, like Anthony Edwards, you need to know these guys.
What kind of seems like. And I got kids that are, you know, fifteen, about to be sixteen. It seems like this generation of maybe twenty five and younger don't I wouldn't say they don't respect like this. Maybe there's just so much other shit going on that they don't know the history of what was before them.
It's not not respect. Yeah, they they just got other ship. There's a lot of stuff that matters, yeah to them. Yeah, you know, you know, but but you're right, you're right about that. And a lot of these a lot of these kids need to brush up. Like you say, all right, go look up Tim Martin or or go look up Stephen Jackson. All right, go look up Mac Brown's go look up out of side? Out of mind? How can we don't talk about Coley? How come we don't talk about Kobe the way we should talk about Cooby Kobe was alive. We'll be talking about Kobe every day every day. But I say, out of side, out of mind? They everybody just skip over him.
I mean, we don't let him go crazy.
I don't either.
I don't either. Wait, we're missing a guy Kobe Bryant. They'd be like, oh yeah, I'm.
Like see, well, you know what's funny is that what I what we found is people that played with or against them don't miss him or or don't or do speak about him. But it's I think against the media that never played and all these people who are experts in the game have bron jumping over everybody and right.
Up in that same colley, And that's not what that's what we all do.
Respect to brout it incredible, yes, but I feel like obviously there was a pecking order, and it always seems like guys that played with or against Cobe have cob at the top of the mountain as well.
Young you're just playing right now, Yeah, ask them. They COVID at the top of SGA, all of them COVID at the top of the list.
Mm hmm.
Let's talk about uh.
Your Miami Heat, Miami Boys right now. Y'all finished the season off with a kind of rocky rough press conference. The Godfather came out and you know, put his foot down win going for this ship. This is my show, and whoever gonna be here gonna be because I say so kinda.
You know, for him to say that, you know, I thought, is that Jimmy trolling? Or is that Jimmy serious? You know, if you're not on the court playing against Boston, around the court playing against the New York next, you should keep your mouth shut and your criticism of those things.
What you think about that?
I was I was waiting on that. I was waiting on that. I knew something was gonna happen, I said, I told some people, I said, pack on Talk this year, pack On Talk this year especially. You know, he's tired of a lot of things that's going on with the team. He's tired of Jimmy.
Butler Well and Tyler Hero too. Like he's been.
He's been babying you and making you everybody was talking about you the next He's been babying Tyler Hero for a minute, and he just staying her.
He ain't showed up yet either. But I think it's I think you were talking to him and Jimmy.
More so, if Jimmy didn't say nothing, you know about other teams and you're not playing, you know, it would have been all right, but when you came out and say that, yeah, he's probably talking about both of them, but I think he really Yeah directly, Yo, dude, you haven't played in a lot of games this year, last year, and especially in the playoffs. I need you to play in the playoffs.
And I need you.
I don't I don't if you play. If you play more than seventy games, we wouldn't be in to playing games two years in a row. All right, I need you to play. And that's where you need to take care of your body. You need to be in this gym. Take care of your body. Not the gym, but the weight room. Take care of your body and getting yourself straight. And I was waiting on that, and we all understood all my AMMI heat people understood where pat Rowley was coming from. And you see what they didn't do. Yeah, we're gonna wait. Yeah, they taking the Jerry Jones approach. We're gonna wait.
Well, both of y'all. I want to ask both of your aspects. Man, you're around the kids a lot too, and they have so much access to so many different things to keep their bodies. You know what I'm saying. Ready to play on the court.
Why they missing so many games today, and not just the NBA. I'm talking about all over. Even my son in high school.
They said, baby, because they're playing a lot of basketball that could be but not in the NBA.
You're not in the NBA. You're not playing that much, and you're not practicing that much, right, practice, right, you know? And like like like stan Van Gundy said, and a great coach, and I love his commentary on TV too, but he say, if you if you repetition your body and position your body to play and condition your body to play eighty two games, most people that played two games don't get hurt.
Well, you got to think, I mean definitely when you came in a while we came in, it was a badger honored to play eighty two d you wanted to play honor.
It's like you got a reward by right, yes, and didn't but you was out there eighty two games.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And Jimmy tough, Jimmy one of the toughest guys that I've known in the league that it just sucks to he will miss so many games that important to that team.
Very important.
He's very important to that team. And if he played seventy two games, seventy five games. It's a totally different team.
Question.
I got a question though, because you were someone who had your career and then went into coaching and you kind of obviously every generation, the area ever is different. What is the difference between the players today and maybe the players how they were when y'all played and then kind of towards the end of your career and we were coming in.
We had basketball IQ. We understood basketball, We paid attention to details, we wanted it, we understood what it took to win. We put in the work to win. It wasn't fake work. Some guys out there fake working because they got to be out there and the camera on and the camera on. You know, ah, you could you could really look in their face and see if they want to be out there, you know, like we wanted to be out there. When we came out there, we had a face on our face like yeah, yeah, it's gonna be on right here when we come out, y'all, people come out to shoot, and when they times to shoot, yeah, we're not hugging a baby, We're not kissing this person, We're not doing this, We're not doing that. We come now here and we shooting a basketball. We our mind is ready to play the game of basketball. We have a job to do.
You know.
This ain't fun time. This is basketball time. This is our job. This is our work, you know. And that's what it was about today. It's about hey, you know, kissing babies here like you want to be the pressure about like like Chouncey Bill said, he said, somebody at halftime he ran in there and looking at it and posted his stuff at halftime the dunk yeah posted dunk said what.
Are you doing?
Man?
Your mind is supposed to be in a game that was getting blown out to see what I'm saying, saying, yeah, I mean but right, Yeah, I would have said, you gotta stay if you want to be back here, you stay back here. You can't even come out to the bench.
You know that.
That's that's what That's what today's game is. But when we played, we we had we had an attitude m.
Hm meant something.
And you could be you could be cool just after the game, right after the game, not during the game. You might fight when your homeboys during the game and then drink a beer with him after that exactly.
That's the way it was.
I would say, these kids are skilled as a motherfucker though. I just think the skill level is higher than it's ever been.
I just think the i Q.
Playing without the ball, off the ball, understanding pick and rolls, how to get off when you don't have the ball in your hands. I think that's what a lot of these kids and NBA players like these days past.
Just staying right while you're standing. You're not going to get the ball back. You know, why don't you cut? Why don't you do something? But that's a lack of coaching. Coaching, coaching to this error.
To explain the errors, is this eraror they worried about getting a bucket. We knew how to get somebody else as bucket, right, And.
That says a lot. That says a lot.
That's why I like watching Golden State. I like watching Ballston, you know, I like watching those teams because they move the ball energy, they find its energy is fine. The right person, you know, one past you might want to shoot and that man open right there. Here you go, no hesitation, I get you another one. That's where it's supposed to be.
One thing I like about like coaches like Don Nels. We talked about and and Rick Carli.
Those type of coaches that told me what they expected me suspected from me to the beginning of the season. So when the season went out started, I knew exactly what my job was. You was talking about that by Jay not having that conversation with your son. Suppose seems like he's that type of coach. Supposed most likely would be the coach for the nest Olympics here in LA and I think it deserves it. But from from from the outside looking in, give me a definition of coach Bowl and why he's so great. I mean, of course, coming up under Pat Rowley is makes it easy to have their education, but he had to stand on his own some way too personable.
Yeah, somebody that you can connect to, Somebody that you can talk to on and off the court, an educator, somebody that's gonna watch film with you and go over your game. That's what he started in the film right right. And he started with Dwayne Wade. He said, let me help Dwayne Wade. That's what Dwayne Wade got a lot of his footwork from Dwayne was good, but you know, some of his footwork he needed to work on, and Eric exposure helped him out. With his footwork. That's when Pat Rowley got more confident with eric exposure. But it's all about communication and talking to the guys and looking at film. Spoke film guy. It's big on film, watching film, dissecting film. And when he he gonna show you, you know, little clips, not thirty forty fifty clips. He gonna give you about six seven clips. He's gonna give you four bad ones for a good ones, show you what you're doing wrong, what you need to correct, and we're gonna go in practice and correct it.
And he a lot.
So so you know, they don't let the guys in until the media in until after, you know, fifteen minutes after they right before the practice is open. But Spoe is actually out there working with guys on the court. On the court. He's hands on with the guys on the court.
You know.
Yeah, you gotta do it this way. We chopping it up. And Pat used to be that like that too, you know, Pat, Pat was young in his days. So he's come out there, this is how we're gonna chop it up. This is how we're gonna move and he go into the movement of the defense and everything. So yeah, I'm just saying, you know, that's how you gotta be. And you got to talk to these guys. You gotta make him understand what you need from you. Gotta make him understand how you want them to play. And they and they would adhere to that. If you don't do that, they're in the water with sharks and don't know what to do.
Just got gold in the Olympics.
Yes, you played on the two thousand Olympic team was able to get gold as well. Talk to us about what that experience was like representing the country and remind us who was on that team.
Man.
You know when you walk up and they give your jersey U s A on, you got a big smile on your face. You're like, damn all right. Now it's bigger than the Miami Heat, Golden State Warriors. So the Minnesota Timberwolves, this USA Kevin Garnet, Vince Carter, Alonzo, Morning, Gary Payton, a kid no on that team, Van Bacon and Toonio make dice Ray Allen.
Vince dunked over by right over him.
But I'm gonna tell you see a lot of people don't remember the most important play. We was down one and Antonio make dice went in for uh we were shooting a free throw and Antonio make dice. They put in and Tonio make dice. He went up there and he tipped in the ball. Guy box him out, but you know how strong an athletic, he kind of jumped over and tipped the ball in and we went up by one. I think it was Lithuania. But we went up by one and we had to go down and play defense and somebody missed a three, got the rebound and got it and we we won the game. But we was in jeopardy that game. And if if mctonia or mcdie didn't go in that game, we we would not have won that game. Well, no, he came.
It came out the room.
Yeah, no, no he didn't. It wasn't in the rim. He tipped it. He was supposed to be. It was a free throw. Somebody was supposed to box him out, and he tipped it in. He jumped over them and tipped it in. But you know ano. Another thing about fever roups. When we played in the nineties, it was fyscal, So it was easy for us to go there and play. When we these guys is they gotta get equipped for that. They gotta get ready for that because they're not used to that. There's no flopping it over there, you fall down.
I don't know.
I watched the Friends game, the women's in the men.
Yeah, I've seen that.
They was like that, that's not a foul. This is this is this is Chicago, New York, l A. We out on the street, were on the street. Look when I call a foul, I call a foul. But other than that, you better play some basketball. That's what we gotta get acclimated to because we're not acclimated that. And once they go through that and get acclimated to it, then it'll be all right. But I mean, I mean, I mean, not Danny be all right. But we we okay. But you know, it's tough to go from what we're doing here.
And not flag football to te football.
Yeah, same thing, right to tackle football.
That's kind of tough. It's tough. It's not easy.
Yeah.
There was recently a video with the debate about your crossover and ais crossover. Later you later came out and said the video was bullshit. But I mean, you're you're you tipped two step and then AI is hanging crossover. I want to talk to you, where did your move come from?
Originally my move came from I practice. I practice. I practiced, and so when I when I asked a kid, I said, how come you can't go work out by yourself? He's like, well, you know it's too hot outside. Well you know, I don't. Then they'd be like, I don't know. I said, you don't want it, you don't want it? I said, I wanted it. I used to ride two miles, maybe a mile and a half, with no seat on my bike, put my ball in the frame, had two nets, get to the park, climb up on the rim, put my nets down, put on both sides, and I used to play my mind that I'm playing against somebody I want to kill. So if I'm playing against Isaiah Thomas, all right, or if I'm playing against you, or I'm playing against you, but y'all not in front of me, but I'm in my mind, I'm going at you full game speed. So a free throw line, have coret free throw line. I'm the first ten. I'm making layups. First ten's up back, I'm making laps. Then I'm shooting ten free throws. Then after that I'm shooting all floaters up and down but I'm doing moves and I'm crossing over and I you know what, I didn't know I had to cross. So I'm just out there dribbling. I'm just out there going through stuff. Because everybody say when I was, you know, coming up, that guy's betting you, that guy's betting you. You got to prove yourself. I always had to prove myself. So I work on my game because I wanted everybody to be wrong about me. And that's how you work on your game. You got to go out there and do it yourself.
Creativity though everything, you just say, that's creativity out there playing one on one against nuts.
So right, you know, on on. So when I when I came against you, I didn't done this so much. I've I've been playing in my mind. I've been playing you. So I do a move. It just was easy for me.
How has the crossover evolved in these combinations of all that just a little bit of We talked about the skill level being, you know, as high as it's ever been. But how do you think the crossover has evolved?
Man?
It evolved, Uh, tremendously. Everybody using it KD. You know, Anthony Edwards, of course you got uh, Chris Paul Kyrie, It's funny. I'm watching a game watching James Harden.
He does it.
He does it all the time. He does my crossover all the time and gets to the rim all the time. And I and I'm watching them. I said, they're going my crossover. And my wife be laughing, like I saw I rewind. She said, he showed did it? I said, I said, he does it all the time, but nobody speaks about it.
You know, you was left right, he right left?
No, I was, Yeah, I was left right, right, right, left exactly. So I see it all the time and I laugh. I'm like, he doing my crossover and he gets open every time every time. But you know, like I said, Chris Paul, of course, Steph. You know, and it's a lot of other ball players out there. I mean, I used to love watching my man do it. Uh uh. That's now with Charlotte Hornet as an assistant coach. Ah, I forget his name, but went to Ukon. He just retired, Yeah, just retired. Walk.
Yeah, we got to take a second man, right, you know, the big goal in the house.
Yeah, how you doing, Thanks for coming by. Thanks, I get to tell.
Yeah, big what's happening? Oh yeah, yeah, you know every time I see Archie Clark, he beats me down. You know your cross so well ship, the bar let you had, he was let you had heard heard no personal talking to University of Cincinnati and I'm walking and I see you. I said, it was like, I said, can you tell you a picture of me with the big It was like, absolutely.
Go back to Chicago. Uh, you grew up in the gang, real the neighborhood. You said, there was nowhere to hide. You just had to figure it out and basically use your survival skills. How was growing up in Chicago?
Oh?
Man, it was very hard. A lot of people when I tell the story. You know of the gangs in Chicago. You know growing up in grammar school, you know high school, it was tough man Grammar school, right, elementary grammar school. You know, growing up in grammar school back in the seventies. Man, it was tough man aar Rookings, the black gangs, disciples. Uh, you know you seeing gang wars and gang fights and you got to fight to get to school, You got to fight get home from school. Something you running watch dressing? Man, I stopped wearing a hat like blue hat, red hat, walk straight. Yeah, you had to. You know, I got tired of just every time I'm fixing my hat so much. I was like, you know, I'm just gonna not wear hat. I'm just I'm just gonna wear a scully, a black scuff, you know, so nobody mess with me, you know. But yeah, man, you walk around. Man, you had you if you had your like this, they was like, oh, you see you walking down the street. People three or four guys coming off the bench. You just off the porch. You just turned back around and walk the other wind, go around, and then when you get towards where they can't see, you just start breaking and running and stuff. I mean, it was tough, man. It's about survival. It's about survival and knowing how to survive and knowing who your friends are and who wasn't your friends, who you can make, friends, who you can believe in and trust and stuff like that. So you know, once they and not my dad. You know, my dad was a playground legend, and everybody knew my dad and everybody knew his people. So once they knew who I was and I was his son, I became cool. Like now I'm off limits. So I was I was real cool because everybody knew my dad and his people, so it became kind of okay. Then I was cool. You know, I was walking around and I know that people are not gonna mess with me. I ain't gotta run all the time, you know, I don't have to fight all the time. So my dad was like six ' three. My dad said, there's no positions out there on the court. Go out there and play. Go out there and play. Go out there. If you if you got if you're on a big fella, you just gotta push him out. You gotta play tougher than him. You gotta out, You gotta box the mouth, you gotta rebound, and you gotta you just and he and he told me how to think the game. You gotta think the game. You gotta understand how to think the game. Our guess guy out think a guy you know, uh, you know, like Dennis Robins used to push you and then he pushed you again. You push him, He's not gonna do nothing. Then he gets strong and next thing you know, you push him again, he falls down.
You know.
That's why I used to hate about John Stock. John Stock used to give me God my God, he used to give me at least two times a game. I'm like, we coming, we were bumping, and then he hit me. Now hit him back. He don't do nothing, and he hit me again. And then as soon as I get strong hereim he falls And referee say, you just gotta know how to play the game, That's all I mean. But yeah, I mean that's the way it is. You guys got to outthink your opponent.
I credit a lot to my attitude and me being straightforward and uh, you know, not really cutting nothing from where I come from. When I speak, right, you one of the best ship talkers of all times? Did you learn that from Chicago streets?
No question, question, real question. You know, if if it's a lot of things that goes on and people when they talk shit to you, you gotta make them understand that you're not gonna beat it's not gonna be that way. Yeah, I'm gonna talk ship back to you. And then after while I'm talking ship to you, I'm gonna beat you down. Yeah yeah, And this is gonna motivate me. You know, but you know you knew you Like like I said before, in Chicago, you gotta know who to talk ship to them not to talk because game bangers, you know, they used to they used to ball too, and there used to be some hell of a hoopers out there, so you can't talk ship to them and then think that you was gonna get away with The killers are the most one, right y'all very sensitive, so he had you know, he talked ship to you be like okay, yeah, right, yeah, you got it. Yeah, all right, here you go, all right, cool foul there you go, all right cool because we know the guys, we know who they are and what they're about. They're gonna come out there and hoop and they're gonna do their thing, and you you just it's kind of like you let them do their thing because it's not a win win situation because it's nothing and it's fifty people with them. They come in with fifty people.
Mm hm.
Talk about Chicago runs. We had summertime, summertime runs. We had a great time, great conversation with one our brothers, Antoine Walker, about about the runs and about MJ and Broun.
Can you talk to us about the runs?
Man?
So let me let me let me go to bron first. So we's playing at hoops. What tim Grover used to have and I ain't no bron at the time, and they said he just came off entry, took off his cast or whatever, and were playing, and you know, he just recklarly. You know, he ain't showing nobody nothing, and he was coming on a fast break and I faked like I was gonna go to him, but I went over here. It was like a three on two on. I faked. That motherfucker just took off sixteen seventeen. That motherfucker just took off from the free throw line. I was like, he just took off from the free throw line. He missed it, but he was way up there. He just missed out. I get this was like his like second time playing, so he was still frantic and getting back out there for about after about four or five weeks and not playing. That motherfucker took off. Man, I was it was like a cartoon and everybody was like WHOA. I was like, okay, that's the first time I saw Brin And you know, he was still just regularly he was still feeling everybody out. He wasn't really he was playing, but he wasn't like, you know, he was just still feeling everybody out. But yeah, man, I runs was fierce in Chicago. I runs was fierce, and oh I got a ton of a ton of stories. So I'm in college. I'm going into my junior year of college. And a guy, he he walks up to me and say, Heyo, we got MJ coming.
I was like, MJ.
Who He's like, we got MJ? I said, MJ. Who said this Chicago? Who was MJ? He said Michael Jordan. I said, oh, well, he gonna get his ass busted to ship this. I turned out. I had me Nick Kendall, gill Uh named Donald Reeves. We had our Fred Q's and his brother. We was rolling, We was rolling. They brought in Michael Jordan, Terry Comings, Craig Hodges. I'm like, you didn't tell me all this was coming. Y'all, y'all got pros coming. We're not even the pros yet. We're trying to get there if we're gonna make it. So I'm like, okay, here we go, here we go. See But a lot of people don't know. I studied Craig Hodges. Move see Craig Hodges used to come down. He'll put it in his right cross between his legs and he has spin and like he and then he go to the basket and let up. So A gotta be way over here, and he's spending going back right. So I knew when he was gonna do the move, and I was sitting on it.
He'll be a great guest.
Yeah, he got a lot of oh man, oh man, he talk about a lot. And I took the ball away from one down court or whatever. But before the game, the guy was like, atim, I got a bet. I said, what's the bet? He said, I got a bet that you're gonna score six points, four or six points with Then Michael Jordan, I said, okay, said how much the bet? He said about eighty thousand. I said eighty thousand. He said yeah. I said okay. I said, but I need that. It was an original Louis Vatan jacket that he got made and I wanted that jacket. I said, I got to have that jacket. I gave me ten thousand dollars. I said, you got a many in thirty seconds, Man, I gotta go play.
Let me know.
He said, oh man, fuck you bet. I said, all right, cool, So after we play, after I did Michael, I mean, after I took the ball from crig Hodges. I went up for a lift. They called timeout, timeout, timeount. He was like, damn, you can't stick him. I said, no, he can't stick me. Why don't you switch off on him? You said it to M to m the crowd went, oh, Mike just turned his head and just kept walking like man, no, no, y'all got to do with that mont. He didn't want that problem. It's plus, I'm at the crib too, I'm in front of my crowd. I'm rolling to its nipping tuck. He's supposed to have fouled out, but you know that's Mike. They want a double old time. But I tell you this, man Mike said after the game, he said, good game. He looked me in my eye. He said, you got a chance. You got a chance. At that particular point, you still trying to feel yourself out, You still trying to understand. You know, if you got a chance. That door opened, and it's from m it open. When that door opened an inch, I kick that motherfucker open.
Man.
Because you getting that from him, my confidence went to another level and I was like, Wow, that's I mean. And that's all he said. You got a change.
Sometimes that's all you need though, right, especially coming from him, and you.
Know, we used to play. We had we had a bunch of ball Isaiah Thomas, Doc Rivers, Mark Kuye, Terry come As, Eddie Johnson. Everybody used to come to the house and play. And we used to play against pros all the time. So it was nothing for us to play against pros. And that's why we got, you know, so many pros that's in the league from Chicago because we go back and we played against all these other high school and college guys and taught them and you know and talk to them, so you know that that's where Chicago is what this is.
I heard.
I heard that that's the reason how the NBA, some league and training cap got to Chicago because all of the basketball players was going in and played in the summertime and they they was already.
So that's how the idea of came.
Because when I came, we came in all the sudden league, the pre draft cap, all that was in Chicago for years, right, And they said the reason why I started there because of the Chicago runs.
That's how it happened.
Yeah, it's always been big Chicago runs, and it's it's starting to pick up again now and Sunny Parker got a big summer league tournament that's going on right now. But no, man, it's uh, it's been a big part of our lives ever since I was in like seventh eighth grade. You used to go and watch these guys play, and I used to be at the gym. The game started at seventh We at the gym at five because it's getting crowded. At six o'clock, you couldn't even get in there. Yeah, I mean you're watching Mark Guy. I've seen Mark Guy get mad at referee and walk the length of the court, throw his jersey down, and the guy ran down the court, down the middle of the court, grabbed that jersey, just a mess jersey with Mark Guy's name on it, and just took off and ran with We used to ask people for their sweaty jerseys after the game after when it was over with. Man, that's how big something lead.
How many how many basketball players you you're in LA, so it's probably different, but growing up, how many actual NBA players do you actually get a chance to meet? Right, you know what I'm saying. So, you know, I can imagine how the kid felt like I got a chance to get a jersey.
Yeah, you know what I mean. And everybody's personal. You walk up to him, all the graft to the pictures, shake hands, high five. It was just all personal.
You know.
We had so much fun, man, just by being there watching them and talking to them and just see and just hearing the footsteps. And you know, Rod, he gets used to play. He never missed a shot. That missed shot, just missed the fund. Milt mm hmm. I mean that's the way it was, man.
We did.
We love watching it.
Like fourteenth pick in the eighty nine draft, there was rumors that Nelly bad talked to you, so you slid to go to State at fourteen in truth to that, did you know anything about that?
Yes, that was true. Yes that was true. Fucking Nelly, fucking NOLLI, fucking Nelly, great guy. Oh but I tell you this, So I supposed to go down to last day you go and work out fourteen trying to get out of Chicago. It was a typhoon in Chicago. Couldn't get out. Was at O'Hare airport to two am, couldn't get out and never got to Oakland to work out what the Warriors. Three days later that it was that Sunday, so monday'll be able to work out. So we had the draft Wednesday Thursday night, and I'm thinking, I swear to here, I'm going to Minnesota, Bill Musselman, I'm going to Minnesota.
Going.
Poor Richson. Okay, okay, Dick first six, I'm going to Indiana.
What pick was Minnesota first?
I think they was three and then I think Indiana was four or five something like that. George McLeod. So you gotta be kidding me. But I'm in my mind. You know, I'm not showing no, you know nothing. And then and I knew Boston like me too, And they got the big fella from he lives here from b y U. I forget his name, and I always forget his name. Uh, but uh, come to find out, I get the Golden State. After Golden State picked me, Nelly was like, yeah, you know, no, not Sean Bradley. Uh but yeah, he he's been telling everybody that got bad knees and you should pick me. Yeah, telling everybody got bad knees, you shouldn't pick him. And uh, he's gonna be a bust in three years for you. And that's what he and I know I know when when he picked me, I know what they face looked like to I know exactly what they face looked like. And but yeah, man, that's what the story was. And after I got to Oakland, Chris Mullins like, what you want to do? I said, Man, I haven't shot ball in like two weeks. Man, I want to go play some basketball.
He's like, come on, let's go.
So we wanted to go play. We played basketball for like four hours.
How cool was Moulley? I mean, we got a chance when we came in with that we believe team. There was still Mitch was still there, Molly was still there.
Just the energy.
The team hadn't been good since you left, you know what I mean, So there's been such a gap and just playoff appearances. But what was that your first impression of Oakland? Obviously you said Molly picked you up from the Red But what was that first interaction like and what was your first experience like out there in Oakland?
You heard so much stuff about Oakland. I knew a bunch of players from the East and Midwest that came out to Oakland, you know, and got caught up in that situation. Get you you know, it'd get you and wet. They first ain't tell you leave that stuff alone, watch you drink all that type of stuff. So you know, not the name on names, but you knew the people that was dead and that was you know, into that stuff. You know. Fortunately I grew up around it, all that stuff in Chicago, drugs, games, all that type of stuff, so I knew how to handle myself when I got there, uh, which was you know, helped me out tremendously. The fans, man, the fans are unbelievable. They'll tell you if you're not playing, they'll tell you if you you know, if you if you're sitting on your ass and dogging it. They'll tell you. Some of the greatest fans in the world. And you know, you have some of the greatest people that came through there. You know, Robert Parris played there before he went to Boston, Rick Berry, Al Addams, those guys. You know, so it man. I mean, the fans there.
Will make a pit stop and yeah, yeah, yeah, well yep, yep. Talk about Molley, I don't think he gets enough love money. Got a lot a lot of game money.
Quiet Molley, Quiet, you know, I always said this. He was a two time Big East Player of the Year and then we was with somebody. I said that, and then Molly went like this three three three times Biggie's played from the Big East? Was it too with Patrick Ewing, Pearl Washington? You know, people from Connecticut and all that. Man, come on, man, come on man, Chris Mullin, slow ass, Chris Mallin, shoot your face out. And people think I'm hating. People think I'm lying. But we, like I said before, we never had social media. And when I say I didn't seen Chris Mullen make a hundred threes in a row, I didn't seen him make a hundred threes in a row. And people be like, ah, you lying. I say, you could take it for what you wanted to be there. You had to be there like you was there for. When you say Steph Curry made ninety five ninety six in a row, that's cool. I understand that. But I seen my man make a hunting in a row. I didn't seen my man go for two and a half hours.
And did not miss Is he the only one not in the hall at all? Three?
No, Chris is in.
He's in the hall all three before you. Yeah, he went in before me. It was Chris, Mitch and myself.
He was twenty five fire miss too. Yes, it was twenty four, was twenty five, five and four for five straight years. Talk to us about run TMC. Where the name is Mitch, where the name came from, and just what that chemistry was like amongst you three.
The chemistry just came just just because we love to play basketball. After we practiced, we practiced for about two two and a half hours and then we'll played three on three whole court.
We did that too, were not the whole court.
But yeah, we played. Yeah, we played three on three whole court. And then Chris Chris yourself and he said, Okay, if you steal a ball, you can't score the ball until everybody get over half court. Now, everybody gotta get over Your team got to get over half court. And I'm like, wait, come up with that. But it's all about being in shape. It's all about having energy. So if you sticking somebody and they're about to post you up and Mitch get is steal at half court, I gotta run from the baseline to half court before we make a layup or we got to bring it back down. Yeah, everybody, So yeah, man, I mean, we we just love to play basketball. And we we had signs. You look, you look, he'll go like this, Well he'll do his eyes Mitchell, Chris, and I throw it right here past his ear and he'll lay it up, or he'll be like, you know, throw a lob and stuff like that. It was just little stuff that we just practiced and we talked about. And that's where the run teams she came. I hear Chris on one side, here Mitchell on the other side. When you right them on your left, Rod Higgins, I'm trailing. You know, you can always hear Rod. I'm trailing. If you need me, I'm trailing.
You know.
Sometimes I drop Rod off a bone or whatever. But you can hit those you can hear those guys, man, they coming down. Just get them ball. And you know, it was like, who is you gonna come off of You're in trouble. You know you can't you can't go double team Mitch. You can't go double team myself or Chris. But we're gonna we as unselfish. We'll pass the ball. We know if it comes back to us. That's the energy of the basketball. So but no, man, run timc Man. We had so much fun and we when we go when we came out east, we went out East, there was so many people that wanted to see us that we sold out. And you just you appreciate your work when people come and see you. You you appreciate the craft and the work you put in each and every day that people come in and see you. And you sell out in New York, you sell out in Boston.
You sell out to lead by Storm.
Yeah yeah, yeah Storm. Then Nelly traded him, But we're not getting in that.
Were you there when when when s Webb was drafted?
Yes, yes, I was there.
Man, How could the things have changed if him and Nelly didn't bump his Oh?
Man, this is what happened. So Nelly came downstairs and said, we finally it was first they practice. We finally finally signed him, and we practicing, and that's when I blew up my ac that day, that day, that day. But if I was there and I and I understood what what because Molly came and was talking to me. He said, man, it's time for you to start coming around. You gotta start working out with the team or or working out, you know, getting your knee together with your team. With the team because they bump in his I ain't know because I wasn't around. I didn't know how it was. I was at practice, but I really, you know, was doing my thing, and so it was kind of it was tough. But I could have bridged the gap between Nelly and with Web and made Web understand how cool Nelly was, how cool Nelly was, and how he was trying to take his game to another level. Web wanted to just catch the ball and take his man one on one. Nelly envisioned Web and doing the same thing that he did in Sacramento in his later years, pointward, point forward, like he could have done that his rookie off the rip, But at that particular time, Web wasn't interested in that. He was interested. I need the ball over here, cleared out. Let me do my thing, all right. I set a pick, we thought a lid. We'd do this and that and this and that. But but I think Web understood once he got to see sacramental what what Nelly wanted when he was a rookie, because he saw he saw what he had with his tools as a basketball player. We saw it in Sacramento. If you could have seen it early on he.
Believed in it. Even when we was go to State.
He came back for a minute.
He came back to that work, and then Nelly pulled some bullsh on Web again, and Web just left.
Yeah, I tell you this. If you yeah, Nelly will do that. Nelly will do that. Nelly will do that. He like, look, man, I mean he'll believed in you.
But yeah, yeah, he's the same same coach that made me a captain for the first time, but also the first coach to ask me where.
I wanted to get traded to.
The time is up?
Son knocked my daughter. How you feel about where you want to go?
That sound like he gave me my first real job, multi year deal and did some dirty ship to me after my mom died. So yeah, I saw the best of them.
Man.
I wanted to fuck him up.
I saw I saw this.
We was at Seattle preseason game. Oland Polynese was fucking people up, just filing people for no reason at all. Preseason game. Nelly said, till Mike Smreck, who.
Else was telling us, finish the story someone else.
Told he said, He said, Mike, I want you going there. Fuck Olden Polynese up. In the fourth quarter, he came back. I mean after the game, in the fourth quarter, he had twelve minutes to fuck open up. He had zero files. Mike Schmarck. He went in with zero foles, came out with zero foles. Nelly didn't say nothing. We go back to Oakland. We got practice, so we started practicing, warming up, doing some stuff. I Mike smrek one on one, all right, he had to stop one person at a time. Okay, two on one, three on one, four on one.
I'm filing somebody three on one, two on one, fire, getna file in five on one.
He ain't filed nobody yet.
We all brought it in. This went on for like forty minutes. We all brought it in. All right, tell everybody, everybody, tell Mike's freck, thank you and goodbye. This is last day. And he walked out. I'm looking like, yo, yo, mom, this.
Is what happens.
M just went on there.
He got some mice on.
Yo.
I'm like, wow, yeah, man.
Mitch told us that story at All Star All Star.
Yeah.
Man, I've never seen ship like that before in my life. And Mike's from Reck say, hey man, thank y'all man, I appreciate y'all. Blah blah blah, this and that and this, and he went on to the Lakers got a ring.
He kind of did something like that that Al harringson. He told he wanted out to lose weight, and I wasn't losing the weight. So we start weighing out before practice, we start wearing get on the scale before practicing after practice.
That shit was so belivling, But he did it.
He did.
He's gonna make you do something. If he wants you to do it, he's gonna find a way to.
Get you out.
He had us playing shuffle board, so just to be a captain, uh Nike decorated athlete, decorated athlete in the nineties. How did that deal come together? And random mean you had a mean shoe game. Yeah, you had a nice collection. Bro, Do you still get those? Can you get those still?
No?
I think the bacons are gone. You just still get there.
But those the ones that's my favorite. Yeah, I like these.
He's very like them too, very light. The only reason why I couldn't whim is because it's got some type of Muslim selling along. Oh yeah in the back, yeah yeah, I lied something right here on the side, right here on the back that so, but I was wearing the Bacon's one day in practice shooting around and Pat.
Was like, uh oh, I see it.
Now I'm gonna get a Pat just cuse yeah right there.
Yeah that's fine.
I didn't know that, but yeah, I was wearing them in practice shooting around New York and Pat was like, hey, man, Tim can wear those shoes in the game. I don't want him wearing those shoes in the game. And I kind of overheard him talking to the equipment. So after shooting around, I grabbed my own shoe and I took him with me and I brought them back and I had them ready to go.
For the game.
He was telling that the equipment. Hey, I thought I told you you take them shoes away from He said, look, man, I tried. He wouldn't let me have what you want me to fight him, then he won't be able to play. He might hurt something. So Pat just let it go. And after we won, Pat was like, man, I'm so glad you wore those shoes, but.
Now I won't win. Man, it's all about whim. Yeah.
That was fun commercial to the fund Police, the fun Police, it was.
Just another night at fund Police headquarters.
Fund police high go down offense called twenty second time out going away.
This is JUnit twenty one possible born basketball gaming progress Yo, Unit ten on the way.
We copy that.
No, oh no, we knew.
What's up?
Dogs up, up, up up up, Let's go, let's go.
Right.
Yeah, Now, it was just one game.
Police, slow it down.
I'm gonna tell you something. I'm so I was doing it. It was Spike Lee, and Spike Lee just said, man, just be natural. Just go out there and do you just start. So we started playing basketball and some guy was just talking ship to me and he was like, just he told I see I saw him. He just told the guy just keep it rolling, don't stop filming. So he kept he talked to me at times, but he said, all right, let's keep going. Let's keep going. And that's where I got skills. And some guy walked past me in the airport about three months ago. I just got to hear it. I said, what you gotta hear? He just said, just said I got skilled. Yeah, I said, he said thank you, that's all he said. But yeah, man, it was fun commercials.
That's the era that a lot of people hold on to.
Man, we were raising that area that's the area we came up in. Traded to the heat of ninety six at the trade deadline. Pat Riley's first year coaching, what was it, What was it like playing for him, and what was the difference between.
Him and Nelly?
Man?
All business? You know, Nelly like to have fun times. I'm going golfing now I'm not. Won'ta be no golfing here. It's straight two and a half hours here, work, work, work, I asked pat one d said I was another best. I said, why we practiced for two and a half hours every day? He said, that's how long the game is.
Make a mat of sense.
I didn't say no more, and I went to practice every day and did what I supposed to.
You know.
But but no, man, it is paying attention to detail film, just no nonsense. When you when you when you walked in that gym, you just feeled energy. It's just dray business. It's dray business. There's no bsing up here.
When you.
When you get from that locker room and you walking up those stairs, it's like a you know, like a prize fire. When he walking down that hallways, he'd be like yeah, he'd be like, you know, you walking you having fun and stuff. You're still talking, and then you get halfway down that tunnguel You're like, that's how it is, just in practice. Then you get up in that stairs and you get or you come in through that that that door work.
That's all.
It's about work, and it's all about repetition. Repetition, repetition, repetition. Everything its repetition.
Uh.
A friend of mine said, Tim, why why you why you doing what you're doing games? I said, Man, we do this every day. We do this every day. My body don't can't help but to do repetition. I'm coming in and I'm just sliding and doing this defensive drills. That's repetition. But I mean, I love playing for Pat.
So how you build a championship mental?
And I love playing for Pa. I love going to practice every day. I love to work, you know. I love going out there and competing for him and for the Mia Me. I enjoyed it. A lot of people, you know, they I enjoyed it because I love I grew up my my grammar school coach, just like Pat, no nonsense. Come out. We're gonna work and this way it is, and we're gonna bust people ass.
Look at this picture right here. You guys ran into the to the Knicks four straight years in the playoffs.
Uh.
Van Gundy on the other bench. A lot of history there. Zoe talked to us about this, uh this time right here, you're right.
There in the mix. What were those battles like with the Knicks, particularly in the playoffs?
Crazy wild fun.
Liquen We went to grab too? Oh he grabbing? Ok, got all people?
No Tim, Now, Tim, Tim, I know oak One's gonna swing back on because we could anybody else, anybody else, I would have probably came with help or something like that. But I'm like, come on, oh come on. But yeah, man, that that that particular fight that was that was I mean, but the fight wasn't And so Larry right, it was something different going on with that. I can't say, some other ship going on. That was the way back when. But they was trying to stop it. But yeah, man, it was. It was battles.
You know.
It started with Pat leaving and they had a hatred for Pat. Talking about Pat rally, Pat right left New York.
Had King's ransom. He asked for some crazy and got it.
Look what he built.
Fifty million dollar contract twenty five hundred dollars per diem Limo rise to and from games.
No, you don't, no, no, take that out. He don't get you're talking about from it for the for the uh New York Knicks. No, oh no, no, no, no, he drives.
Okay, Well, Mark that scratched that the heat needed to buy him out of LA New York Homes.
Any truth to that.
No, he still got his LA home Man team president, head coach. Yes, all that, and there's a billionaire now, yeah, he got. He got a lot of paper.
Packed mafia ties between me and you, pop not far from that.
No, he knows some people. He knows some people. I tell you that he knows some people. I'm gonna tell you this, but no, he don't. He don't get. He drives. He drives sometimes. He drives old cars.
He drives.
He got some nice old cars too. He got some real nice old cars. He got that one car that I want that was sevestered salon in it and he was uh undercovered police officer. That red thing that dropped down had fire come out of it. Yes, boy, that car that was a bad car right there.
He would be on my bucket list.
You know, we used to pick the five people want to have dinner with because I can imagine the stories.
From the farm till now. A lot.
He has a lot because we played in the preseason with Don Nelson and we walked into we played in the forum against the Lakers. Kobe Fire met in two minutes that in the first quarde again, but as walking he was like.
If these walls could talk, yeah, yeah, and I know.
He got yes.
Despite the tremendous Hall of Fame career you had, you said, if you could remember for one thing, it would be that you changed.
As a man.
Can you speak to us about those changes you made over the years or throughout your career, or just as you continue to evolve as a man.
Parenting never stopped and being a husband never stopped. And I always always always been as me and my brother, and I always had to take care of my brother, my mom. My parents divorced that when I was a young age, when I was sixth grade. So I was always the man I always had, like I said, take care of my mom, my brother, and each day is it an experience for me?
You know?
And I never discount what I said back in two thousand and five that really hurt me and really hurt my family. I'm talking about my whole family, my parents, my brother, his kids, my kids, my wife's family. It hurt us all. And I had to really really dig deep down and search and I understood I was wrong and I had to evolve as a man and don't my dad said. My parents, my parents always say, don't never shy away from nothing. If you wrong, deal with it and make amends and help people, Okay, And That's what I've been doing. I hear some people, I'm out. I hear some people, I'd be like, yo, ya, y'all need to comment down. You need to stop that. That's not right, you know. And I make them understand why it's not right. You know, they are people too. They here to have fun too, and they should. Everybody should have fun and enjoy themselves, no matter who they are and what they are.
You know.
But each day, you know, when I watch my son play, I know when he's going to call me. M I gotta be up late that night. When my daughters call me they got a problem. I gotta deal with the problem my mom or my dad, my brother, you know, so they expect, they expect me to be there so I gotta be strong for a lot of folks, and and I know how to deal with it. You could grow up under a rock and not deal with it. But this is my family. I'm all about family, and I'm gonna take care of my family as as as long as God keeps getting me up every day. That's my mission. Take care of my family.
Love it.
And that's what it's about. And growing up as a man, and and and it's not you know, it's not being a man. There's a lot of women out here that that that has a lot on their shoulders, but they deal with it and they do what they're supposed to do, and it's kudos to them. So it's how you deal with it. It's how you deal with it and how you could make it better for people. And that's what I try to do. I try to solve the problem, make it better, you know, and make and make them understand what it's really going on. But it's gonna be all right. It's definitely gonna be all right. Because I'm from Chicago, man. I'm telling you what I went through and how I had to just make it out of there. It was a struggle and with our people behind me and giving me confidence and support. When they said to a village to raise a kid, it really takes a village. But the kid got to listen.
Yeah, I got to buy in.
You gotta buy in. If you don't buy in, you're gonna fall through the cracks. So you gotta listen. And I was one that listened, and I understood what I need to do to get out and make some numb myself. And that's what I keep doing it. And I go back and I give back all the time to the kids and talk to the kids in Chicago and make them understand. Man, it's hard work.
It was easy everybody to do it.
I posted something on my Instagram just wanting to to to test to what you said. I say, don't get addicted to escaping. Face your ship, handle your business and triumph. No battles everyone by people who run. That's true, and that goes to what you are today.
That's true.
You gotta deal with it.
You gotta deal with you gotta face it. You know, if you face it, it's gonna work its way out. It's gonna work. If you don't face it, then you get deep be there exactly when you.
Come back to it's still gonna be there.
Quick hitters. Last thing before we get you up.
Three Nike models to wear for the rest of your life. What are they?
Oh?
Three Nike models. Oh Man air raids of course against them now crossovers, original crossovers. Uh. And you know what I got, I got. I gotta go with the air George, I got to go with the air joints. The uh, that's that, the uh the little concords. Now I'm talking about the three court eleven yeah, elevens, the small, I mean, but the low, the low. They're very comfortable. They very come and of course you gotta have air Force ones got to you got you got any color of them, you got it. They so comfortable, gotta have them.
What you got on now? Bronze?
Yeah, you know what I got? These are very comfortable.
I got.
Comfortable ship.
As we get older, it's less about what they look like and what they feel for the screen.
I'm walking in socks.
I'm paying for comfort.
Only one thing you wish you were better at.
Man, one thing I wish I was better at. You know what I want. I want to get better at being a parent. You know, it never stops, It never stops. And you, and you gotta constantly, constantly, constantly be there for them, and you gotta have ways to make them understand how to get out of stuff. So it's parenting.
I would say music because a lot of videos of you, you love R and B. You always sing, and I thought you was gonna sing, That's what I said.
Because you always no. No, I'm not gonna put that.
One album you could listen to with no skips.
One album, no skips. I will say, Frankie Beverly, he told.
You he loved it. R and B. I know, Yeah, you can't go wrong with.
That class man or Off the Wall with Michael Jackson.
If you can have one guest on Guess on All the Smoke, who would it be? But you have to help us get your answer on the show, So it's gotta be someone you're cool with, Pat whatever, Chris.
And I don't know how because money knows so much about both of us.
Or if you can get Ahold of the Big Old and see if he want to come on the show.
I mean, right there, you know what I I will say, Chris Molley, Yeah, I will say Chris, y'all, y'all have a great time. That's got to y'all will have great y'all, y'all been here laughing Chris, Chris is funny.
He's gonna tell some stories that we don't even remember, right, Yes, yes, well.
Tim man, we appreciate your time. Thank you for finally getting a chance to sit down with us. We continue, continue blessing to you and your family, and we'll be rooting for you.
Man New York. My fifth seven boys comes U and l V let me kill Larry. Y'all said, let's go ask where we should go, and y'all flooded it.
Man.
So we appreciate the love.
Like that, y'all coming out and showing us love. We appreciate y'all. Mm hmmm mm hmm
