Run TMC reunited to call Warriors-Spurs game

SAN FRANCISCO -- As Chris Mullin, Tim Hardaway and Mitch Richmond sat down in the press conference room at Chase Center Monday night, it was immediately apparent their chemistry was just as intact as it was for the two seasons they played together in the early '90s.

"Our good looks made it pretty good," Richmond joked about what allowed the trio to instantly click. "The time we got on the court, it was three guys who really loved to play ... and that carried over to off the court. Me and Tim would go shopping together but I stopped because anything I picked, he would pick. But yeah, it was just natural."

They're hoping to have that instant chemistry again Monday night, but this time in the studio rather than on the court.

Mullin, Hardaway and Richmond served as the play-by-play announcers and analysts on the Golden State Warriors' broadcast of their game against the San Antonio Spurs. Tom Tolbert will be the sideline reporter.

The former teammates have been involved with the Warriors' community since they retired. Two months ago, they got their most recent request from the team: broadcast the game on NBC Sports Bay Area.

Initially, the Warriors wanted to find a way to honor Tim Hardaway's Hall-of-Fame induction, which reunited the trio in the Hall. They thought it was fitting to have it on the night when the team would honor the Run TMC era with the jerseys. But then it blossomed into a full-blown broadcast.

Mullin is no stranger to broadcast television. He serves as an analyst for NBC's Warriors pre and postgame shows. But this is new territory for Hardaway and Richmond.

"We'll see what type of skills we've got together," Hardaway said. "Chris does a great job, but we're going to bring flavor ... and then we got Tom Tolbert. Oooh, wee. We don't know what he's going to say. He could say anything. He's probably drinking a beer right now."

Last week, the Run TMC broadcast team had a 45-minute production meeting over Zoom. The producer laid out how calling a game works, and the ins and outs of what they needed to do to prepare.

Hardaway admits he barely paid attention. But, one thing the producer made very clear: what you cannot say on air.

They didn't do much research on the team heading into the game and planned on relying on their pre-existing knowledge of the team and the organization's history to carry them through.

There are stark similarities between the Run TMC Warriors and today's team.

"How they move the ball kind of reminds us of how we played," Richmond said. "We moved the ball, we cut, we passed. So it's always good to see."

The other parallel between their team and this one, and one that Mullin, Richmond and Hardaway weren't pleased to learn, is that these are the only two Warriors teams to start 0-7 on the road (they started 0-9 in 1989-90, according to ESPN's Statistic and Information research.)

"What a way to bring us in," Hardaway said. "We were still trying to learn stuff and learn each other ... I don't know what to say about that."

That's when Mullin chimed in, noting that's similar to how he views the Warriors' early struggles

"This is a unique situation because you are talking about a dynasty, and trying to [move] the dynasty beyond anything we've ever seen in the past," Mullin said.

"It's very early in the season and trying to bridge that gap and find the connection between the first unit and the second unit ... the fact that it's happening at the beginning of the season, it's getting a little over-analyzed. But we played together for two years ... they've been together a decade. But it's a lot to expect them to figure out [how to bend new, young players] and play the same way."