Noah Trister
Associated Press
Ann Arbor -- Dumars, Hardaway and Horford.
It sounds like the start of a solid NBA team around 1990, but this trio of big names isn't in the pros yet. Instead, Jordan Dumars, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Jon Horford are teammates at Michigan.
"Their families are basketball families," coach John Beilein said. "They understand the ebb and flow of being a player, and the only understanding I get is they really want us to work hard at developing their sons both on and off the court."
The last names on the Michigan roster are familiar for anyone who follows the NBA closely. Joe Dumars and Tim Hardaway each scored more than 15,000 points in the league, and Tito Horford played briefly for Milwaukee and Washington. Now, their sons are pursuing their own careers, coincidentally at the same school.
"I want them to just be who they are," Beilein said. "You'll never hear me say, 'Why can't you be like your father?'"
Jordan Dumars is the oldest of the three Wolverines -- and at least locally, he has the most famous dad. When Jordan was born, the elder Dumars had just finished winning back-to-back championships with the Detroit Pistons. Joe Dumars is now the team's president.
Jordan actually began last season at South Florida before transferring after the first semester.
Hardaway and Horford are both freshmen.
Tim Hardaway Sr. was a standout with the Golden State Warriors and Miami Heat, and Jordan Dumars has seen NBA highlights of Hardaway taking on his father.
"(Joe) would show me old tapes," Jordan Dumars said. "I think they might have still been wearing the short shorts at that point, and they were playing against Tim when he was in Golden State. I think it was the game where my dad might've had 40-something and Tim had 40-something."
Dumars and Hardaway spent time together with the U.S. national team, and their paths crossed again recently. They now have something else in common.
"When we went down to play Miami during the preseason I ran into Tim," Joe Dumars said. "We laughed and talked about our sons playing together."
Jon Horford actually has more than one NBA connection. His brother Al Horford plays for the Atlanta Hawks. Al played college basketball at Florida and won back-to-back national titles with the Gators, but Jon, who was born in Lansing, stayed close to home.
"That makes it a lot easier for me to go to the games," Tito Horford said. "It was tougher when Al was in college."
Hardaway Jr. came all the way from Miami to play for the Wolverines, and he was oblivious to the fact that two of his future teammates also had NBA fathers.
"I didn't even know that Dumars was on the team when I got here," he said. "And then we got Horford -- I didn't know his father played in the NBA, either. All I knew is his brother played in the NBA. So I'm like, 'Wow, we've got a lot of NBA guys on here -- sons and relatives and stuff like that.' Then, on top of that, we've got Glenn Robinson's son coming."
Hardaway Jr. even left out one other teammate with close NBA ties: Michigan guard Josh Bartelstein's father Mark is an agent who has represented players in the league.
The question now is whether these Wolverines can leave their own legacies on the court. There's undoubtedly some pressure that comes with having such recognizable last names. Joe Dumars, who is revered around Michigan for his accomplishments with the Pistons, now has a son nearby that he can cheer on -- but he's careful not to intrude on Jordan's independence.
"I've always tried to balance that," Joe Dumars said. "To absolutely 100 percent support him, but to never overstep my boundaries."
Jon Horford may have been speaking for the group when he explained the challenge of living up to such an impressive pedigree. Sure, a lot will be expected of him, but with a father and brother who have accomplished so much, he doesn't have to look far for a mentor.
"I'm younger," Horford said. "I've got to learn from them -- learn from what they did well, learn from where they messed up and just try to make the best future I can."
Nov. 12, 2010
