Former Michigan basketball star Tim Hardaway Jr. joins Detroit Pistons

It’s always fun to watch former Wolverine greats play professional baseball in the state of Michigan, and fans in Ann Arbor and Detroit will get to see another appearance in the 2024-25 NBA season.

Former Michigan national basketball star Tim Hardaway Jr. will continue his career with the Detroit Pistons, who received the scoring winger and three second-round draft picks from the Dallas Mavericks on June 28 in exchange for Quinten Grimes.

On Saturday, the Pistons welcomed Hardaway Jr. with a tribute video on social media. The former Wolverine is seen arriving wearing a maize and blue No. 2 jersey that appears to be a tribute to Michigan’s legendary cornerback Charles Woodson (but it could also represent current Wolverine star Will Johnson).

In Michigan, Hardaway Jr. is best known as the running mate of his backcourt colleague Trey Burkewho led the Wolverines to the Final Four and national championship game in 2013. That season, Hardaway Jr. averaged 14.5 points per game, hitting 43.7% of his shots from the field and 37.4% of his three-pointers. He also added 4.7 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game in a season in which he was selected to the All-Big Ten first team by the conference’s coaches and to the All-Big Ten second team by the media.

During his career at Michigan, Hardaway Jr. scored 1,532 points (14.3 per game), grabbed 440 rebounds (4.1 per game), dished out 225 assists (2.1 per game), and had 76 steals (0.7 per game) and 33 blocked shots. He was unanimously selected to the All-Big Ten third team as a sophomore in 2011-12 and received honorable mention All-Big Ten honors the season before that as a freshman. Hardaway Jr. was unanimously selected to the Big Ten All-Freshman team in 2010-11, a season in which he set Michigan’s single-season freshman record with 76 three-pointers. That record was later broken by Nik Stauskas in 2012-13.

Hardaway Jr. is one of the most popular Michigan players of the last 15 years. In his final season in Ann Arbor, he not only helped the Wolverines to a national runner-up finish and the team’s first Final Four since the days of the Fab Five, but Hardaway Jr. and Burke also led Michigan to a shared Big Ten regular-season championship the year before. The three-year Wolverine wowed fans with his shooting power and brought the Crisler Center crowd to its feet with several spectacular dunks during his career.

During his 12-year NBA career, Hardaway Jr. averaged 14 points per game while shooting 41.8% from the field, 36% from the 3-point line and 81.2% from the free throw line. The 6’5″ and 200-pound player averaged 2.9 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 1.6 steals per game.

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