Tim Hardaway Sr., a three-time All-Star with the Warriors in the 1990s, saw Draymond Green's NBA potential early on.
Except -- ironically -- Hardaway didn't lobby Golden State to select Green. Alternatively, the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer, who spent five-and-a-half seasons in Miami, scouted Green for the Heat ahead of the 2012 NBA Draft.
On Tuesday's episode of "The Draymond Green Show with Baron Davis," Hardaway recalled watching Green in college and attempting to persuade Heat president Pat Riley to select the future four-time NBA All-Star.
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While his son Tim Hardaway Jr. played for Michigan, Hardaway often scouted Big Ten college basketball games --which coincided with Green's time at Michigan State.
"I'm writing you up, and I'm like, 'This is Miami Heat culture right here. Draymond Green is Miami Heat culture. We need to draft him,'" Hardaway detailed. "He's going to come in, he knows how to play, he's going to play his role, he's going to play defense [and] he's going to give everybody confidence. This dude can play the game of basketball."
But despite Hardaway's conviction, the Heat eventually passed on Green with the No. 27 overall pick.
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"Pat was like, 'I don't want him.' I said, 'Why?' He never gave me a reason," Hardaway continued. "So every time you came to Miami and y'all beat us there, he looked at me and said, 'You better not say it.' I was like, 'I told you so.'
"If we would have had [Green] and just his presence in the game and knowing the game -- I'm not saying it would have been like this -- we could have won three in a row with LeBron [James], Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh. I felt comfortable with you being on that team, coming in and doing what you're supposed to do, because you were the type of Heat player that they needed."
"I appreciate that," Green replied before recalling his own experience at the time. "You know what's crazy is Miami was one of the teams that I thought would be really high on me during the draft."
Instead, the Heat drafted Arnett Moultrie, who then was traded to the Philadelphia 76ers and played in just 59 career NBA games. The Warriors selected Green eight picks later, and the rest is history.
"I would watch those Miami teams with LeBron and D-Wade and Bosh, and be like, yeah, I could have brought exactly what that team needed on a low salary," Green concluded.
It's hard not to think of what could have been for the Heat had they added Green right in the middle of their consecutive NBA Finals victories in 2012 and 2013.
Thankfully for Golden State, however, that never became a reality, which helped spur its own legendary run over the following decade.