Mitch Richmond: In the wrong place at the wrong time
A member of the famous "Run TMC", Mitch Richmond was known as a great player and it was showed while he played in Golden State Warriors alongside Tim Hardaway and Hall of Famer Chris Mullin.
Richmond was drafted with the fifth overall pick of the 1988 NBA Draft by the Golden State Warriors. He averaged 22.0 points, 5.9 rebounds, and 4.2 assists in his first season with the Warriors, and won the Rookie of the Year Award. He joined point guard Hardaway and forward Mullin as the Warriors' "big three." The chemistry between them, along with an uptempo offense, allowed the high scoring trio to outperform their opponents regularly. Hardaway, Mullin, and Richmond were called "Run TMC" because of their fun, exciting style of play.
On November 1st, 1991 Richmond was traded to Sacramento where he became the team's first real star since moving to Sacramento. Richmond was scoring machine averaging over 21 points a game. Nicknamed "The Rock" and "The Hammer," Richmond was even better in his fourth season with the Kings. He appeared in his third consecutive All-Star game and was named the MVP of the game on Feb. 12, 1995. Richmond helped the West defeat the East 139-112 by going 10-for-23 from the field for 23 points. During his prime, Mitch Richmond was selected to the U.S. Olympic team, also known as "Dream Team III" and won a gold medal and was recognized as one of the best pure shooters in the NBA.
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Nevertheless, arguably Richmond’s finest season was 1995-96, as he led Sacramento to a First Round Playoff series against the Seattle SuperSonics. As the No. 8 seed, the Kings pushed the eventual Western Conference Champions to four games. In the Kings lone series victory – also the team’s first-ever postseason win in the Sacramento-era he scored 37 points in Game 2, which was played in Seattle.
In 1998, Richmond was traded along with Otis Thorpe to the then Washington Bullets for a power forward Chris Webber. Richmond played three seasons with the Wizards (1998-2001) and averaged 17.8 points, 3.1 rebounds, and 2.6 assists per game. After three seasons with the Washington Wizards, Richmond signed with the Los Angeles Lakers as a free agent on July 20, 2001. In his 14th and final NBA season, Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant helped him to win his first and only NBA Championship.
Richmond was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame at Springfield on Aug. 8, 2014. The six-time All-Star led the Kings in scoring for seven straight seasons from 1991-98. He is third in franchise history with 12,070 points and holds the record for most 3-pointers made with 993 in Kings' history.
