Tim Hardaway's career wasn't defined here, but it was completed here.

His signature move wasn't developed here, but it was shown off a few times here.

His courage wasn't discovered here, but he was at his most courageous here.

The legacy of Tim Hardaway was a cross-country creation that started on the South Side of Chicago, continued south in Texas, moved west to California and settled here in Miami.

This wasn't Hardaway's last stop, just his most significant. So it's here that the legacy was fortunate enough to be celebrated with Wednesday's jersey retirement ceremony.

Fortunate because Hardaway is simply one of the most unique, special players in the history of basketball.

There aren't many players in this game's history that have enough skill and bravado to get away with being 6 feet tall, on a tall day, shoot an awkward, behind-the-head knuckleball shot and still be great.

There are even fewer who have a signature move named for him.

Call it the killer crossover or the UTEP two-step. Or you can just call it what the Heat coaches call it when they have their players drill the move on the practice court: the Hardaway.

Between the legs left, cross back over to the right, at full speed. Try it one day. You might make yourself dizzy. Or at least embarrass yourself.

Hardaway's son, Tim Hardaway Jr., doesn't attempt it during his games with Palmetto High, and he's an All-Dade player going to Michigan.

His dad? He still pulls it off now, in pick-up games. Even late in his career, he could make opposing point guards look outmatched.

Like when his son asked him to show it off one day in a playoff game against the Knicks.

``I didn't see it when I was little because I didn't understand it,'' Hardaway Jr. said. ``But during a New York [playoff] series with the Heat, I told him, `Dad, I never saw you do a crossover before in a game.' And he did it in the second quarter. He did it on Chris Childs at the free-throw line, then he made a right-hand layup, and then he pointed to me like, `There you go.'

``I was amazed because it was real lethal.''

Hardaway was more than a crossover. He was an injection of confidence. He never won a title. He never even made a Finals appearance here. But he made this team relevant for the first time in the 1990s.

No one likes to say this out loud, because it would be an insult to Alonzo Mourning, but Hardaway was arguably more crucial to the Heat than the big man was.

Mourning created the style of play -- the low-scoring, defensive-minded style -- but someone still had to win the game.

And Hardaway usually did that.

``When I first got here, it was dull,'' Hardaway said in one of the more frank moments of his speech Wednesday. ``Y'all was dull.''

It was true. He brought that flair to Miami. It just so happened to come with an incurable itch to win.

The old Golden State Run TMC was reunited, Mitch Richmond and Chris Mullin surprising Hardaway on his night.

``When I saw them come in, the night was complete,'' he said.

The night didn't have all the emotion or tears or sheer length of Mourning's 40-minute ceremony.

``You have a time limit -- Zo messed it up for everybody,'' Hardaway said with a laugh.

But Hardaway's night was equally as deserved.

There was a time where you wondered if this would ever happen for him, most notably following his infamous radio interview when he asserted his dislike for homosexuals.

But Hardaway has worked on rebuilding his image since that 2007 interview. On Wednesday, he was mature enough to recognize that the process is not complete.

``It doesn't complete that [image repair],'' Hardaway said. ``It's an ongoing thing -- no repairing anything, but just going on in life.''

Maybe we did get the best version of Hardaway. Or at least we have him now.

And always will.

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