Penny Hardaway: One Of The NBA's Biggest What Ifs In NBA History

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“It [basketball] saved my life because there was so much negatives that I could've gotten into,” Hardaway said. “That's what you have in the neighborhood all day long. Playing sports or being in a gang. That's it.”

Hardaway chose the path of sports, namely basketball, and he brought his friends with him.

“Me and a couple other buddies found basketball to be better for us to bond with. Because we didn't want to steal cars, bikes, rob people. We didn't want to go down that road,” Hardaway explained.

So, Hardaway and his friends played basketball, every single day. By the time high school arrived, Hardaway knew he now had a chance to showcase his skills in front of people.

Penny Becomes A High School Star

Hardaway attended Treadwell High School in Memphis, and this is where his basketball game would blossom.

As a senior, Hardaway averaged an incredible 36.6 points, 10.1 rebounds, 6.2 assists, 3.9 steals, and 2.8 blocks per game.

Hardaway's incredible play led to him being named National High School player of the year by Parade Magazine.

After finishing his high school career, the young man they called Penny was ready to take his talents to Memphis State University to play for the Tigers.

The Memphis Kid Goes To College

After a stellar high school career, Hardaway figured he'd jump into college and things would continue to go his way. This, unfortunately, wouldn't be true and Hardaway would find out the hard way.

First, Hardaway had to sit out his freshman year at Memphis because his grades were so low he became academically ineligible to play according to the Proposition 48 regulation.

Hardaway's problems continued to grow during his freshman year at Memphis. After playing pickup ball with some friends, Hardway drove to his aunt's house, and there he'd run into trouble.

“We park in front of my aunt's house and this car creeps by us, and I'm noticing the car, but I'm naive. The car went three homes down this road, turned around, and went right past us,” Hardaway said about the incident.

“I see headlights and look back and it's the same car,” Hardaway continued. “Comes by us again, makes a left onto the same street, turns around in the same driveway. The car comes back past us. I get out and hear the brakes screech... the window rolls down and there's six guys inside. My heart is racing, this is not good.”

Hardaway explained how the gunmen held a gun to his head, robbed him and his friend, and drove off. But this wouldn't be the end of their scary encounter.

“They started shooting to where we were before,” Hardaway explained. “They could shot us point-blank, but they drove off, and when they drove off, maybe they thought we should have shot them, and they didn’t. One of the bullets ricocheted off the ground and hit me in the foot.”

The shooting incident changed Hardaway for the better. He saw this as an opportunity to change his life, so he started to focus on his schoolwork.

Hardaway would raise his grade-point average to 3.4 and on the court, he'd play two great years at Memphis.

Despite only playing two years at Memphis State University, Hardaway recorded the school's first triple-double, and he led the Tigers to eight victories over naturally ranked teams.

Hardaway also became the 10th leading scorer in school history at the time, despite only playing in 66 games.

Hardaway decided to skip his senior year and take his talents to the NBA, and being a part of a movie would lead to one of the best duos of the 1990s.

Blue Chips

Before entering the NBA, Hardaway was cast in a supporting role in an upcoming basketball movie called Blue Chips.

One of the stars of the movie, Blue Chips, was a young NBA player by the name of Shaquille O'Neal. The making of the movie was the first time O'Neal met Hardaway.

“I didn’t know who Penny was before that movie,” O’Neal said in an interview with Sports illustrated. “I was playing one day [in preproduction], and I noticed he was always on my team. I finally told somebody, ‘Man, I don’t know why this dude’s an actor. He can play in the league.’ They was like, ‘He is going to play. He’s probably going top three in the draft.'”

Hardaway and O'Neal bonded during the filming of Blue Chips and O'Neal saw the massive talent that Hardaway had, he knew from that day on that he wanted to play with Hardaway.

Penny Hardaway's NBA Debut

In the 1993-94 NBA draft, Hardaway was selected by the Golden State Warriors with the third pick. The Orlando Magic held the first pick in the draft, and they selected college star, Chris Webber.

Hardaway placed the Warriors hat on his head, but he'd only wear it for a few minutes as the Magic traded the rights to Webber for Hardaway.

The Magic made the trade to get Hardaway after O'Neal pushed the front office to select his movie co-star. From here, the Shaq and Penny duo was ready to take the league by storm.

As a rookie, Hardaway averaged 16.0 points, 5.4 rebounds, 6.6 assists, and 2.3 steals per game. He was named to the All-Rookie team, and he helped the Magic win nine more games than the previous season.

Hardaway's play also helped the Magic reach the playoffs for the first time in franchise history. The young Magic would fall to the Reggie Miller led Indiana Pacers 3-0 in the first round.

The Magic would bounce back from their playoff loss to the Pacers with a vengeance. Hardaway raised his game once again, averaging 20.9 points, 4.4 rebounds, 7.2 assists, and 1.7 steals per game.

The Magic would win 57 games that year, giving them the best record in the Eastern Conference.

By the time the playoffs arrived, Hardaway and the Magic wanted to show they were a better and more experienced team from last year.

The Magic faced off against the Boston Celtics in the first round, and they won the series 3-1. The real test to their championship dreams would occur in the semifinals, where they'd go up against Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls.

When Hardaway's Magic played Jordan's Bulls in the 1995 NBA playoffs, Hardaway's team had the edge.

First, the Magic held the home-court advantage over the Bulls and more importantly, Jordan was still rusty coming out of retirement.

This rust was put on the national stage when, at the end of Game 1, Jordan first had the ball stolen from him by Magic guard, Nick Anderson. Then, Jordan passed up a game-winner and tried to find Pippen, who wasn't expecting it.

The ball went out of bounds, and the game went to the Magic. This momentum would carry on for the remainder of the series as the Magic defeated the Bulls 4-2.

The Orlando Magic made their first Eastern Conference Finals behind the play of Penny Hardaway and Shaquille O'Neal.

There, they'd have a rematch of their first round loss of the previous year, as they'd play the Indiana Pacers.

The rematch between the Magic and the Pacers wouldn't end in a sweep this year. Instead, a grueling seven game series occurred with the Magic coming out on top.

Hardaway, O'Neal, and the Orlando Magic reached their first NBA Finals, and they played the Hakeem Olajuwon lead and defending champion Houston Rockets.

The Magic were the favorites to win the title as they had home-court advantage and the Rockets stumbled during the season, finishing with a 47-35 record.

The Rockets wouldn't stumble in the Finals. They'd go on to defeat the Magic and in a sweep, making it the second straight year Hardaway's Magic were swept out of the playoffs.

Even though the Magic lost in the NBA Finals, Hardaway played great. He averaged 25.5 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 8.0 assists during the four games.

Hardaway's popularity continued to grow and with fun commercials that featured “Little Penny”, Hardaway seemed ready to challenge Jordan at being the face of the league.

The Downfall Of Hardaway's Career

The Magic would bounce back strongly in the 1995-96 NBA season, finishing with a franchise best 60-22 record, which was the third-best record in the league.

In the playoffs, the Magic would meet Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls in the Eastern Conference Finals, but this year, things would be different.

Michael Jordan wasn't a rusty version of himself in the 1995-96 season. The Bulls also set the record for most wins (at the time) with 72, and they were the clear favorites to win.

This year, there was nothing Hardaway or O'Neal could do to stop the Bulls. For the third straight year, the Magic would be swept out of the playoffs.

This angered Magic fans and players alike. That offseason, O'Neal would leave the Magic to join the Los Angeles Lakers to form a new, unstoppable duo with Kobe Bryant.

This change looked to put the ball more in Hardaway's hands, giving him a chance to take his game to another level.

Hardaway would get to show his talents on the world stage when he joined the 1996 version of the Dream Team.

The United States and Hardaway won the Gold Medal and Hardaway averaged 9.0 points, 2.8 rebounds, 4.4 assists, and 1.4 steals.

Once the 1996-97 NBA season started, Hardaway intended to show the world he could win without O'Neal, but the first real injury of his career would occur. This would set up an unfortunate domino effect.

Hardaway dealt with numerous injuries, costing him to miss 23 games. The Magic finished with a 45-37 record, and they would lose 2-3 in the first round against the Miami Heat.

The 1997-98 season would be the worst for Hardaway. He injured his left knee, which required arthroscopic knee surgery.

Hardaway rushed to make it back for the 1998 NBA All-Star Game, where he was voted in as a starter, but he received criticism for this.

Hardaway played in only 19 games that year as the Magic missed the playoffs. The next season was the 50-game lockout season, and Hardaway played in all 50 games, but you could see he wasn't the same.

The Magic finished with a 33-17 record, tied for the best record in the East, but they would lose in the first round 3-1 against the Philadelphia 76ers.

After the season, Hardaway's career in Orlando would come to an end when he ended up in Phoenix from a sign-in-trade with Orlando.

The injury bug came back to bite Hardaway as he played in 60 games. The Phoenix Suns would finish the season with the fifth-best record at 53-29, and Hardaway would reunite with Shaquille O'Neal as the Suns played the Lakers in the semifinals.

O'Neal would get the best of his former teammate, as the Lakers beat the Suns 4-1. This season would be the last good season in Hardaway's career.

Hardaway would suffer more injuries, causing him to have two microfracture surgeries on his left knee, causing him to only play in four games.

Hardaway would go on to play eight more seasons in the league, for the Suns, the New York Knicks, and the Miami Heat.

In those eight years, Hardaway's teams only made the playoffs in two of those seasons, both times losing in the first round.

Hardaway would retire from the NBA after the 2007-08 season, ending a playing career that should have been much brighter.

Coach Hardaway

Penny Hardaway loved the game of basketball. It saved his life, it was in his DNA. He always wanted to get back into the game in some way after retiring.

He'd get his first shot in 2011 when he became the coach of his former middle school, Lester Middle School.

While coaching at Lester Middle School, Hardaway made it his goal to make sure his players would succeed as students by instituting a mandatory tutoring program.

Hardaway helped his students off the court, and he helped them on by leading his team to three state championships. Next up on Hardaway's post-playing career list: college coach.

Now, Hardaway had to wait until 2018 to get his first coaching job in college, but it would be worth the wait. Hardaway replaced head coach Tubby Smith to coach his former school, the Memphis Tigers, of what's now known as the University of Memphis.

In his first season as head coach of the University of Memphis, Hardaway led the Tigers to the NIT. He also recruited some top prospects, including James Wiseman.

Since Hardaway has taken over as head coach for the University of Memphis, he's collected an 85-43 record, the 2021 NIT championship, and he led the Tigers back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2014.

It's safe to say Penny Hardaway has rebounded beautifully in the game of basketball as a head coach since his playing career ended on a bad note.

Even with the injuries that plagued his career, Penny Hardaway has been and still is a favorite of many fans and NBA players alike.

Now, the only question remaining is, will Penny Hardaway stay at Memphis as head coach? Or will he someday make the jump back to the NBA and try to redeem his career as a head coach?

This is something I think many basketball fans would love to see, especially if a head coaching job opens up in Orlando.

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