Tim Hardaway determined it was greatest to step apart graciously, arguably the correct method contemplating he was about to get shoved apart.
In 367 profession regular-season video games with the Miami Heat, Hardaway set a franchise report with 806 3-pointers, a report that stood since his 2001 departure.
More than twenty years later, because the Heat ready to open their five-game western swing with Friday night time’s recreation towards the Denver Nuggets, Duncan Robinson stood with 804 in 264 video games with the group.
“I’m happy for Duncan,” Hardaway mentioned Thursday. “He’s a hard worker. He’s been through a lot just to get to where he is today. And he put in hard, hard work. He’s just confident in himself and he deserves it.”
For Hardaway, there may be considerably of a household connection to the second, with Dallas Mavericks guard Tim Hardaway Jr. and Robinson having grown shut by way of their frequent University of Michigan roots.
“They speak all the time,” Tim Sr. mentioned. “They talk to each other during the summer. Michigan guys are like a fraternity, like the Kentucky guys.”
It is thru the friendship that Robinson achieved higher perception into Hardaway’s Heat legacy and the 3-point report.
“I know Tim Jr. pretty well,” Robinson mentioned, “so I’ve gotten to know Tim Sr. a little bit, obviously a great player, legendary player, ahead of his time. He changed the game, with handles, crossover, all that stuff. I mean he’s a great player, a Hall of Famer.”
As for the report, Robinson mentioned it hasn’t precisely been a spotlight, however a chase that hardly may very well be ignored.
“Mostly, it’s people telling me, ‘You’re getting there,’ ‘You’re getting close,’ ” Robinson said. “I didn’t know specifically it was 806.”
The occasions, after all, have been totally different.
Had Hardaway achieved a profession excessive of 17 3-point makes an attempt in a recreation like Robinson, Pat Riley might need strangled him.
From Erik Spoelstra, the fixed mandate has been to shoot much more.
“Today,” Hardaway mentioned, “everything is predicated on threes. Back then, we weren’t even looking at threes like that. We were just looking at, ‘I’m open here and I’m shooting it.’ But these days, it’s analytics. It’s threes and layups and free throws.”
Of which Hardaway has no difficulty.
“Somebody who works for it and plays hard and did all he could do for his team, I’m all good,” Hardaway mentioned of Robinson’s emergence from undrafted Wolverine. “I’m with that. I’m very happy for him.”
Appreciating all alongside the probability that he merely was a placeholder.
“People kept telling me and hitting me up on texts about my record was going to be broken,” Hardaway mentioned. “And I was like, records are meant to be broken. I felt like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s [scoring’] record never was going to be broken, but here comes LeBron.”
Just like Robinson arrived at his personal second.
“I mean it’s pretty humbling,” Robinson mentioned of the pursuit of Hardaway. “I didn’t expect it, didn’t anticipate it. But I’m a beneficiary of a lot of good teammates, the times, shooting a lot of threes.”
And so, Robinson will get to place his title alongside different franchise’s all-time three kings corresponding to Dirk Nowitzki, Paul Pierce, LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Reggie Miller, James Harden, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Durant, Steve Nash and Damian Lillard, amongst others.
“A lot of things are just out of my control,” Robinson mentioned. “But one thing I can control is to keep shooting. And through some ups and downs, whatever, to be the franchise record and be around 40 percent, pretty proud of that, for sure.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com