This is how I know I’m getting old: Just the other day, I was telling my little brother, who is 20, that Penny Hardaway had one of the single greatest playoff performances in NBA history when he put up 31 points, 6 boards and 3 assists per game in the first round of the ‘97 playoffs.
My brother proceeded to laugh hysterically in my face.
“Penny who!?!? Yo, how did he get a nickname anyway? He’s a bum!”
If only he knew the Anfernee “Penny” Hardaway I did. The cat nicknamed because his grandmother said he was “pretty as a penny” was arguably the best player in the L for a minute. So when news broke today that he was getting waived so the Heat can make room for Luke Jackson, your boy was hurt.
If you look at Penny’s career averages (15.2 ppg, 4.5 rpg, 5.0 apg, 1.6 spg) you’d have no idea that he was Kobe and D-Wade before Kobe and D-Wade. Shaq’s success with the Orlando Magic wouldn’t have happened without Penny, who for a time was unquestionably one of the best players in the world.
You know those “next Magic Johnson” comparisons you hear for guys like LeBron and (no joke) Shaun Livingston? Yeah, those started with Penny. He was a beast, a 6-foot-7 point guard who could score, pass, defend and wouldn’t hesitate to bang it on you and give you a fitted hat.
For a minute, he was the best thing smoking in the NBA. I remember going to the store with my mom to cop his Air Flight One sneakers. My grandmother even liked him because of the “Lil’ Penny” commercials!
Just like another forgotten legend, Grant Hill, injuries got the best of Penny. You can still see flashes of old-school Penny from time to time, but the fact that he was playing 20 minutes a night on a struggling Miami team and averaging just 3.8 points and 2.2 assists shows his decline.
A while back, Dime looked at Penny’s career with a “Hall of Fame Watch” article. It asked the question, is Penny’s four-year run of dominance enough to get him enshrined with the game’s greats? Dime said Penny was out. I say he’s in. But of course I’m biased.
December 12th, 2007 at 5:14 pm
Alex "Robocop" Murphy says:
I’m with you on Penny. I think he’s in. He was the reason I bought NBA Live 96′. I got his signature shoes too.
December 12th, 2007 at 5:23 pm
Myrie in NY says:
Penny ain’t no HOF’er. But keep schooling your lil bro. He needs to know Penny was all the truth in the mid 90s.
December 12th, 2007 at 6:30 pm
illfil27 says:
I’m saddened by Penny’s decline. Of course I knew he wouldn’t get any younger, but still I had hope he could prove doubters wrong by coming back strong with the Heat this season. I don’t know why he wasn’t able to convert the playing time he got into more productivity, but he really showed flashes from the past. I’ve watched a couple of games and there were a few passes that reminded me of the Penny of days long passed. I’m only a year older than your brother and still I remember those days when he dominated the L. I was seven years old during my first visit to Orlando with my parents back in ‘93. That was the very first time I had actually seen a basketball game. This was the time I saw Penny Hardaway play for the first time also and instantly I fell in love with the game of basketball. I had decided that Penny should be my all time favorite player and he still is despite not being the Penny of old. Every NBA Live game I played on my SNES I chose to play with Orlando because of, guess who? My interest in the NBA has even received a boost this season because it was time for Penny’s return. And now I must read that he’ll supposedly get waived and your brother saying that Anfernee Hardaway is a bum!? I guess it’s time to be sad again and reminisce the good old days. I still have some glorious games on tape, I’ll probably watch them soon.
December 12th, 2007 at 6:43 pm
ed says:
i still remember getting those all blue foam pennys and being the only one in my high school with them. great shoes, one of my all-time favs. just makes me feel old.
December 12th, 2007 at 7:07 pm
kennypayne says:
u guys feel old? imagine how are heroes like penny, grant hill, c webb must feel.
December 12th, 2007 at 7:10 pm
Mike C says:
Yeah Penny was good, but to say that he was Kobe before Kobe is stretching it.
Kobe has been the consensus best player in the world for the past few years now..
Even though Penny was nasty, he was never considered as being the single best player in the L.
The thing about Penny is that, while he was a very good all-around player, he wasn’t dominant at any particular aspect of the game..
He was not an explosive scorer that teams had to make adjustments to their defensive schemes.. Nor was he a lock-down defender that checked the opposition’s best perimeter player.
Now don’t get me wrong, cause Penny used to be one of my favortie players and I hope that he can come back to the L. But to compare him to Kobe is going a little overboard..
December 12th, 2007 at 7:39 pm
Brown says:
Mike C,
I wouldn’t say it’s consensus that Kobe’s the best player in the league. Ever hear of a kid named Lebron James? He’s pretty good too.
December 12th, 2007 at 7:40 pm
Kart says:
Mike, I expected your opinion. But I doubt if you watched Penny play in the Orlando era. In my point of view, of course he is not Kobe because he is better than Kobe. He doesn’t have to score to make the team win. He is like a combination of good part of Kidd and Kobe. He can score with ease (shooting over 50% in his prime years, while Kobe’s best shooting % is close to 47%), he can beat you by passing the ball, if you were old enough watching the games he play in Orlando, you will fall in love with him because it seems he just knows how to play basketball right. He didn’t have to score to win, but if he needs to, he can (he got many winner shots or winner passes in the final sec.) He single handily almost led Orlando #7 to beat the #2 Miami Heat back then. That’s when his coach asked him to score. And he did, against the most suffocating defense team at that time, he scored 42 points, 41 points and 33 points in the last 3 games of that series after the coach asked to concentrate on scoring, not passing. So to me, he is a better player than Kobe. Kobe is a great scorer, but I don’t think he is the best basketball player in the league.
December 12th, 2007 at 7:42 pm
Austin Burton says:
I think Christian meant “Penny was Kobe” as in “Penny was Shaq’s superstar backcourt teammate.”
December 12th, 2007 at 8:09 pm
sam says:
damn i feel old after reading this. lil penny wasn’t THAT long ago was it?
December 12th, 2007 at 9:36 pm
Gee says:
Can Kobe have a lil Kobe or even better T-Mac having a lil Mac who has back problems every now and then. Not making to much light of it just saying it would comical.
December 12th, 2007 at 9:37 pm
Gee says:
Can Kobe have a lil Kobe or even better T-Mac having a lil Mac who has back problems every now and then. Not making to much light of it just saying it would comical. Better yet K.G. needs a lil K.G. that whole thing they tried to do with Bron was garrrrrbage!
December 12th, 2007 at 10:51 pm
Ian says:
kart you are right he was better
he made everyone better something kobe cant and will never do.
brown lebron mike c kobe
sorry fellas carry your team and win big then youll be the best
duncan is 1
December 13th, 2007 at 4:57 am
svigi says:
Man,it’sad. I loved that all-star starting five of Penny , Mike , Pip , Hill and Shaq. That was great. I feel old.
December 13th, 2007 at 6:44 am
kowtz says:
Penny was more of magic johnson.. Kobe is more of MJ (OK fine no one comes close to his airness…)
Remember his follow up rebound under the basket, and before landing on the ground, drills a behind the the back no look pass to horace grant for the dunk…
Oh and Lebron may be the League’s best for the coming years… But kobe is the best for the past years or so… hands down… Besides, bron is more like nique… too much power, needs more grace…
I think there was a survey on the GM’s and coaches, who would they want to take the last shot not named Michael Jordan… everyone answered kobe except one… he chose reggie miller… I think it was larry bird…
December 13th, 2007 at 8:03 am
dre in o town says:
it sucks because you don’t really have a player like Penny anymore. We have all of these “stars” but most of the time it’s just them scoring in bunches and saying that they did there part. There needs to be more all round talent in NBA players on a more consistant basis.
December 13th, 2007 at 8:16 am
Chris says:
I remember back when Penny signed with the Suns, and I was convinced him and Kidd would rival for the all time backcourts in history… If only.
December 13th, 2007 at 8:29 am
Ian says:
kobe last shot please
people u need to look at kobes stats in that situation he shoots like 20% or less
give me reggie
and again the best player of the past few years has been duncan
December 13th, 2007 at 9:30 am
Justice says:
4 years of greatness is not good enough for the hall if that’s the case then we have to start putting in guy’s like bernard king (I don’t think he’s in) and on the other side of the sectrum a guy like T.D terrell davis would be in the nfl,you guy’s have to take note also penny had a hell of a team Nick Anderson and Dennis Scott were still nice at the time and Horace was a pain in my a** too hitting those free throw line jumpers,great era but this guy was a very good player for a very short space of time similiar to Eddie Jones, Van Exel, Finley, stodamire so on and so forth..it is what it is.great story
December 13th, 2007 at 9:37 am
Bobby stew says:
The first NBA jersey I ever owned was the black Champion Penny Hardaway Orlanado Magic jersey. I saved up my allowances for that jersey. I remember watching his first game on TNT with Shaq. Oddly enough they were playing against the Miami Heat. Penny will always be in my childhood H.O.F.
December 13th, 2007 at 10:01 am
Dime Magazine says:
I was never a big Penney Hardaway fan, but I have no problem admitting that for 4 or 5 years, he was the truth.
and his work in “Blue Chips” as Butch McCray was top-notch.
- Pat
December 13th, 2007 at 11:14 am
Keith says:
Great blog Christian. I agree, Penny was the truth.
Actually, he was my idol in the mid 90s (well, sort of). I patterned my entire game after him (including that sweet hesitation pull-up “J”). Both him and Grant Hill were virtually unstoppable in the mid 90s and used to give cats the business. (Ahem, Scottie Pippen).
December 13th, 2007 at 11:14 am
Soopa says:
When he still had his legs, there was no stopping him. He also had some of the 90s hottests signature kicks (try google’ing “penny shoe” if you dont know them) and ofcourse the lil’ penny commercials are as good as they come.
I cant help thinking how drasticly careers can change. What if in 5 years Wade lost his legs or someone like Durant doesnt recover from an injury? Its sickning!
Found this very fitting video of his career on youtube:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=uvvgVn0gg1E
(I didnt make the vid or anything, just liked it)
December 13th, 2007 at 12:06 pm
jz_smoove says:
Penny was the bomb!!! And no fool, either stupid or just plain dumb should say otherwise. In any case, all true fans know the real deal.
December 13th, 2007 at 1:29 pm
doc says:
His grandma knew the truth. She called him penny because if thats what you got you are broke, just like his body. But he was nice and his sneaks was always the shit.
December 13th, 2007 at 3:17 pm
Björn says:
i’m with you too.
just show your brother this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvvgVn0gg1E
December 13th, 2007 at 5:27 pm
MJax says:
Penny was the truth.. I think the writer meant that he was both a teammate of Shaq’s and he was a dominating Robin, sometimes Batman with Shaq. This guy could do every and anything on the court. He didn’t have to dominate the scoring like Kobe and Wade and they still won. He was fluent, and got it done, and this was when DEFENDERS in the L were REAL! And handchecking was something that simply went on. Players were more rugged and hardcore in Penny’s era, and he still produced.. If he ain’t HOF, he’s Honorable Mention.. Him and Grant Hill, Bernard King, Ron Harper and Bill Walton are easily on the “Could Have been Truly Something Special, If Not For Injuries” team…
December 16th, 2007 at 11:14 pm
Smitty says:
I remember it like it was yesterday…the Magic got back-to-back lottery pick securing an Atlanta Braves-esque worst-to-first flip for the boys from the O. Penny was the truth-period. The was he dominated the media, I would say he was bigger than Kobe and Shaq have ever been. The Penny’s were the only kicks to rival J’s (with the Foamposite joints selling for that cool $160-170– by far the most at the time). As you mentioned the Lil’ Penny commercials were super hard and the boy would bang on a cat like your bad lil’ nephew with a cap gun. Great article my boy.
February 15th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
BA says:
the haters need not respond, anyone that says he wasn’t that great were too young to remember his games, first 7 years were awesome with or with out S…..check out the first game against LA & S with Kobe getting schooled…ALL FIELD GOALS
March 7th, 2008 at 3:35 am
Daniel says:
Man, I’m 22 and know the truth about Penny Hardaway. Your lil bro just dont his stuff.
Penny was so sick. I’d say that Kobe has finally passed Penny’s talent level and performance in the past couple season, but Penny was definitely better than Dwayne Wade, and every other player.
I’m disappointed that he was never able to put that whole career due to those injuries. I’m not sure he makes the Hall, though, just because his decline was so steep.
and lil penny was DOOOPE!!! Penny was the ultimate name dropper. He had Ken Griffey Jr (another guy who couldve been one of the best ever), Tyra Banks, even MJ was in a commercial (on the cover of lil penny’s newspaper)
LeBron’s stupid Squirt is just a wannabe