10 Career-Defining Tim Hardaway Cards – Instant PC
Long before Allen Iverson made his NBA debut, Tim Hardaway was the king of the crossover dribble, putting together a Hall of Famer career while starring for the Golden State Warriors and Miami Heat.
All told, there are more than 2,000 Tim Hardaway cards, according to the Beckett database.
So where does one begin putting together an Anfernee Hardaway PC?
The following 10 cards serve as an excellent representation of his playing career and footprint on the hobby, making them a great place to start.
1990-91 Hoops #113 Tim Hardaway RC
After averaging 22.0 points and 5.4 assists during his senior season at UTEP, Hardaway was selected No. 14 overall in the 1989 NBA draft. He immediately stepped into Golden State’s starting lineup and averaged 14.7 points, 8.7 assists and 2.1 steals to earn All-Rookie honors, and that was just the beginning.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, players didn’t appear in sets until after their first season in the NBA, so Hardaway’s Rookie Cards can be found in 1990-91 products. He has three rookies in the Fleer, Hoops and SkyBox base sets from that year, and all three carry a modest $3 book value.
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1991-92 SkyBox #303 Highest Scoring Trio (Hardaway/Mullin/Richmond)
During the 1990-91 season, the Warriors had the highest-scoring trio in the NBA with Chris Mullin (25.7 PPG), Mitch Richmond (23.9 PPG) and Hardaway (22.9 PPG) averaging a combined 72.5 points per night. The trio was known as “Run TMC” and while their time together was brief—Richmond was traded to Sacramento prior to the 1991-92 season—it was memorable nonetheless.
Their scoring prowess was highlighted on a subset card in the 1991-92 SkyBox set that can be picked up for pocket change.
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1992-93 Ultra Playmakers #3 Tim Hardaway
Hardaway averaged a career-high 10.6 assists per game during the 1992-93 season to go along with 21.5 points per contest, earning his third straight All-Star selection in the process. However, he tore a ligament in his left knee prior to the following season, and the subsequent surgery wound up costing him the entire year.
What better way to honor his career-best assists average than with his inclusion in the 1992-93 Ultra Playmakers insert set, which highlighted the game’s top distributors.
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1995-96 E-XL #42 Tim Hardaway
After averaging 20.1 points and 9.3 assists in a successful return from knee surgery during the 1994-95 season, Hardaway saw his numbers drop across the board the following year as he began to take a back seat to rising stars Latrell Sprewell and Joe Smith.
Midway through the 1995-96 campaign, he was traded to the Miami Heat with Chris Gatling in exchange for Bimbo Coles and Kevin Willis. The 1995-96 E-XL set was one of the few to feature him on a card in a Heat uniform that year.
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1996-97 Finest Refractors #109 Tim Hardaway
In his first full season with the Heat, Hardaway averaged 20.3 points and 8.6 assists, returning to the All-Star Game for the first time since the 1992-93 campaign. The Heat finished 61-21 that year and Hardaway made the deepest playoff run of his career, reaching the Eastern Conference Finals before Miami was sent packing by the Chicago Bulls.
What’s a player PC without a few Refractors? He has a pair of Refractor options in the 1996-97 Finest set that are reasonably priced and great-looking cards.
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1999-00 SkyBox Apex Allies #13 Alonzo Mourning/Tim Hardaway
During their five and a half years as teammates, Tim Hardaway and Alonzo Mourning led the Heat to the postseason six years in a row, winning four consecutive Atlanta Division titles along the way. They were unquestionably one of the best point guard-center tandems in basketball at a time when that tandem was a formula for success.
It’s only fitting that one of the handful of insert cards they were featured on together would find its way into this collection. The 1999-00 SkyBox Apex Allies insert is a solid choice with an affordable price tag, thanks to the fact that they were an easy pull at 1:6 packs.
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2000 Topps Team USA Gold #10 Tim Hardaway ACH
Hardaway was selected to play for Team USA in the 1994 FIBA World Cup, but an injury kept him out of action. He was given another chance to represent his country during the 2000 Olympics, and he averaged 5.5 points and 1.5 assists while sharing point guard duties with Jason Kidd and Gary Payton for the gold medal winning team.
Topps put out an entire Team USA set in 2000 and there are a few different Hardaway cards to choose from. There is also a Gold version of the set, making for even more options to track down.
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2001-02 Fleer Showcase #68 Tim Hardaway
Prior to the 2001-02 season, Hardaway was traded to the Dallas Mavericks in exchange for a second-round pick. The 35-year-old served as the backup to Steve Nash, averaging 9.6 points and 3.7 assists in 54 games before he was traded again in February.
He was pictured in a Mavericks uniform for several of his 2001-02 cards, and those serve as a fun snapshot of a quick chapter in his career.
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2001-02 Upper Deck Inspirations #23 Tim Hardaway
The Nuggets acquired Hardaway in a seven-player deal that sent Nick Van Exel the other way and also involved Juwan Howard, Avery Johnson and Raef LaFrentz. He started all 14 of his games in Denver, posting similar numbers to his time in Dallas earlier that year with 9.6 points and 5.5 assists in 23.2 minutes of action per game.
While most of his 2002-03 cards feature him in a Nuggets uniform, the 2001-02 Upper Deck Inspirations set was the only one to show him with Denver during the year he was traded.
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2013-14 Panini Family Business #5 Tim Hardaway/Tim Hardaway Jr.
Hardaway’s son Tim Hardaway Jr. was taken No. 24 overall in the 2013 NBA draft following a successful collegiate career at the University of Michigan. He bounced around a bit early in his career before finding a home with the Mavericks in recent years, and he has averaged 13.8 points in 605 career NBA games.
The father-son tandem was featured in the 2013-14 Panini Family Business insert set, along with seven other family duos, including Hardaway’s college teammate Glen Rice Jr. and his All-Star father.
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