Tim Hardaway Sr. wants active NBA players to step away from their microphones during the season.
The Hall of Fame guard argued against current players hosting podcasts or live streams on a recent episode of the Crossover Podcast. The conversation came up regarding the Boston Celtics trading Jaylen Brown, a frequent livestreamer, to the Philadelphia 76ers in a deal for Paul George, who has a long-running podcast.
"I never agree with a guy having his own podcast on a team," Hardaway said. "I just don't agree with that … Whether it's streaming or whatever. While they’re playing."
"You're disrespecting these other teams"
Hardaway explained why he's against players podcasting during the season, and he doesn't think former NBA commissioner David Stern would have allowed it.
"I feel that you're disrespecting these other teams. You're talking about these other teams, and Adam Silver just let it go," Hardaway said. "David Stern would have been like, 'Hell no. We're not doing it.'
"If you talked about a team in the media, and say, like, on a trade or something like that, you would've gotten fined by David Stern. He would’ve fined you. You do not talk about nobody else’s team. You talk about your team and your organization. That’s it. That's all. And you can only talk about the team that you played that night. The next day, you can't talk about them."
Brown defends streaming
© Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images.
Brown has occasionally drawn unwanted attention due to comments made on his Twitch stream.
The league fined him $50,000 for claiming after Boston's elimination loss to Philadelphia that the referees "clearly had an agenda." Brown, who won a championship with the Celtics in 2024, also called the 2025-26 season his favorite after serving a leading role in Jayson Tatum's absence.
Hardaway isn't the first person to question whether active athletes should stream. Colin Cowherd called streaming "trouble" when saying athletes should stay away from the space, where they're less inclined to offer polished, media-trained answers.
Brown disagreed when responding to Cowherd's comments on a Twitch stream.
"I think the world craves authenticity right now," Brown said. "Everything is so PR. Everything is so scripted. Everything is so fictional or packaged that I feel like people want to see what the real emotion is, what's real."
