5x NBA All-Star reveals Don Nelson sabotaged career options with false injury claims after Warriors' draft

After an impressive collegiate career with UTEP, Tim Hardaway was selected as the 14th pick of the 1989 NBA Draft by the Golden State Warriors. At that time, the team was coached by none other than Don Nelson, a five-time NBA Champion as a player and the then two-time Coach of the Year (1983, 1985).

Nelson saw talent in Hardaway, who was named a First-team All-Western Athletic Conference (WAC) player in his final year of college and the WAC Player of the Year. Nelson spread rumors about Hardaway to ensure that no other NBA team drafted him before the Warriors.

On Saturday, Tim Hardaway joined Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson on the All The Smoke podcast and was asked about the rumors. The rumors turned out to be true, as Nelson told teams Hardaway's knees were bad so he would slide to No. 14 in the draft.

"Yes, that was true," Hardaway confirmed the rumors. "F*****g Nelly. Great guy though. But I tell you this, I'm thinking, I swear to you, 'I'm going to Minnesota. I'm going to Minnesota.' ... I get to Golden State after Golden State picked me.

"Come to find out he's been telling everybody that I got bad knees and you shouldn't pick me. He's telling everybody I got bad knees 'You shouldn't pick him. And he's going to be a bust in three years, four years.'"

Don Nelson and Tim Hardaway had plenty of mutual admiration for one another after infamous NBA Draft rumor

2022 Basketball Hall of Fame inductee Tim Hardaway. (Credits: IMAGN)

While Don Nelson told other teams leading up to the NBA Draft that Tim Hardaway had knee problems and they should avoid drafting him, the two wound up establishing a great player-coach relationship.

Hardaway spent six years with Nelson in Golden State, playing some of the best basketball of his career with the famed coach, with two years of averaging a double-double with points and assists.

In a 1998 interview with SLAM Magazine, Nelson spoke about how coaching Hardaway forever changed his approach to coaching basketball.

"I never had a great point guard before, and I never knew what I was missing. I'll never be without a terrific point guard again."

The respect, of course, went both ways. During an appearance on The Mark Jackson Show in November, Hardaway said anyone who had a chance to play under Nelson knew just how fun it was.

"The way the Warriors play today… that's the way we used to play. The way the Boston Celtics play, that's the way we used to play."

Even though their professional relationship in the NBA began with Nelson making up rumors about Hardaway, it sounds like things worked out well in the end.