Remember Anfernee “Penny” Hardaway? When I say that name now what you, I and everyone else think of is a sub par basketball player who somehow makes 15 million dollars a year. People even try to insult him by calling him the “nickel” instead of “penny”. I never quite understood how this was an insult, if my nickname was “g-spot” and people started calling me “million dollar man.” that’s an upgrade in cash, therefore its an upgrade in a nickname. Honestly, would you rather have a penny or a nickel? Anyway it is time to jump back into the way back machine, back into the golden age of 1990s basketball.
Before all our basketball heroes got 30 year, 700 million dollar contracts then simultaneously hurt their knees or developed drinking problems.
Penny Hardaway was an amazing player back in the day. His height and passing ability drew him comparisons to Magic Johnson, his scoring ability drew him comparisons to Michael Jordan. Basically I think Penny Hardaway was a prequel to LeBron James. Statistical evidence is what I’ll use to support my claims, however stats never tell the whole story.
He was all NBA first team in 1994 and 1995 and 3rd team in 1996. He beat out such greats as Gary Payton, Reggie Miller, Mitch Richmond (so maybe he wasn’t great but he had some amazing numbers in the 90s), Clyde the Glide and John Stockton to get those first team honors. Those are 90s legends. In 1995 Penny was at the height of his career, on the cusp of a championship (who knows what would have happened if Nick Anderson had not pulled a Nick Anderson and missed four free throws in the waning minutes of game one). He was also teamed with a young Shaq, which obviously contributed greatly to his success. The following year they lost to Michael Jordan and the Bulls in the Eastern Conference Finals. Then Shaq left and took Dennis Scott with him (actually he didn’t, Dennis just couldn’t contribute without hitting the open jump shots that he got when Shaq was double teamed. 45% shooter with Shaq, 39% without him). Nick Anderson was done after he missed those FTs in 1995 (FG% fell to 39%) and Penny was left with a team featuring such legendary centers as Rony Seikaly, Felton Spencer and Danny Schayes.
Penny still tried his best, averaging 31 ppg in the playoffs that year, a loss in 5 games to the #1 seed Miami Heat. Then Penny got hurt and only played 19 games in the 1997-98 season. Although he rebounded in the strike shortened year that followed by playing every game, he was not the dominate Penny of old. He then got traded to Phoenix to be apart of “Backcourt 2000” with Jason Kidd. Backcourt 2000 became “Back In Court 2000” after the legal troubles both had in 2001. However in 2000 Penny looked like old Penny again. He played great in the playoffs (20, 5 and 5). However he got hurt again in 2001 and tried to rush back and re-injured himself. This is basically when his career ended. Lucky for him he was in year 2 of a 7 year, 85 million dollar deal (that only one man in the world would trade for, and he did: Mr. Isaiah Thomas).
So next time you see Penny struggle in the Garden as the Knicks probably get blown out, as his minutes get cut in favor of Nasty Nate Robinson and some other guard you don’t know, do not hate, do not compliment/insult him and call him the “nickel”. Just step into the way back machine and remember mid 90s Penny. How sweet it was.
One reply on “My Two Cents On Penny”
Why Penny? Do people still rip on Penny Hardaway? He seems pretty non-relevant in today’s NBA game. Then again he plays for the Knicks who have totally fallen off the NBA radar, unless you get a thrill out of Isaiah butcher an entire franchise. However I agree that Penny would have been a Hall of Famer if things would have worked out differently in Orlando and his injuries did not rob him of his athletic skill.