Run TMC joined Dubs Talk and shared their thoughts on how Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green are Hall of Fame NBA players.
- Programming Note: The Warriors’ Hall of Fame trio of Tim Hardaway, Mitch Richmond and Chris Mullin will broadcast Monday’s 7 p.m. game against the Spurs in a “Run TMC Takeover” on NBC Sports Bay Area, with ex-teammate Tom Tolbert serving as a reporter during the broadcast. Authenticated subscribers can stream live coverage on the MyTeams app and NBCSportsBayArea.com, starting at 6 p.m. with “Warriors Pregame Live.”
After two action-packed seasons together, the Warriors’ now-Hall of Fame trio Run TMC was broken up in 1991 when Mitch Richmond was traded to the Kings.
Speaking with NBC Sports Bay Area’s Monte Poole in the latest “Dubs Talk” podcast episode, Richmond revealed he’s still hurt by the trade -- especially when he sees what Golden State stars Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green have been able to accomplish on the court in their decade-plus together.
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“I was definitely hurt, man,” said Richmond, who was joined by Chris Mullin and Tim Hardaway for the interview. “I think because that team was kind of like a college team, how we prepared, and we were still young and still growing together.
“I took [the trade] very hard. I never could get over it, and Mully will attest to that. … Still hurt by that, especially how when you look at the games today, and you look at what Klay and Curry and Green [have] done since they’ve been together.”
From 1989 to 1991, Richmond, Mullin and Hardaway set the NBA and Dub Nation ablaze with their on-court dominance. They were the league’s highest-scoring trio during the 1990-91 NBA season, and the Warriors went on to upset the San Antonio Spurs in the first round of the playoffs that year after posting the franchise’s best regular-season record in nearly a decade.
Similarly, Thompson, Curry and Green breathed life back into Golden State in 2015 by leading the franchise to its first NBA championship in 40 years (and three more since). While it took the Warriors’ current Big Three a few years to turn things around in the Bay, Richmond and Hardaway know Run TMC was on the cusp of something great before the trade that ended its run.
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“It took a little time [for Curry, Thompson and Green] to get it going, but I think we started out on the right track,” Richmond said. “We just needed a few pieces. … It was a special unit that you never really break up under two years. That was really difficult to get over.”
“And especially after the good run that we had,” Hardaway added. “... We saw right then and there what we should be doing, and how we could get to that next level. … We [were] confident for the next season. And then [the Richmond trade] happened. That was like, 'Wow. For real?' That was a big blow.”
RELATED: Hardaway says Run TMC 'ahead of our time' in HOF speech
Richmond went on to make six NBA All-Star teams with the Kings, leading the team in scoring during each of the seven seasons he played in Sacramento.
There’s no telling what else he, Mullin and Hardaway could have further accomplished as Run TMC, but the current Warriors dynasty offers a glimpse of what might have been.
