Anfernee "Penny" Hardaway

  One of my favorite basketball players of all time and one of the biggest reasons why I love the game of basketball is one Anfernee Hardaway, but most of us know him as Penny Hardaway.

Penny burst onto the NBA scene back in the 1993 NBA draft where he was picked third overall by the Golden State Warriors. But through a trade with the Orlando Magic that sent him along with a couple first round picks in exchange for Chris Webber who was originally drafted by the Magic with the first pick.

To say that Penny made an impact right away, would be a major understatement. With Penny to compliment the man in the middle Shaquille O'Neal, the Orlando Magic quickly found themselves as a playoff team.

In fact, in only Hardaway's second season in the NBA the Magic had found themselves in the NBA finals. Sadly, they got swept by the Houston Rockets who were led by the great Hakeem Olajuwon. In the 95 finals, Penny said 50 percent from the field while averaging 26 points per game, eight assists and five rebounds.

Unfortunately, that would be the only time Penny Hardaway would make it to the finals. Injuries became a major part of Hardaway's career which is sad because I truly enjoyed with how Penny played the game of basketball.

I found sad that many people of today's generation of basketball never got to see how awesome Penny was. One of things I really loved about watching Penny play was not only how he would score, but how he got his teammates involved. Penny was one of the most went rounded players in the league and didn't need to constantly score in order to make an impact on the game.

Another thing I really enjoyed about Penny was the silly commercials involving Nike where he would play as himself but was joined by lil Penny which was voiced by comedian Chris Rock. I highly recommend if any of you can find some of those old videos, please watch them because they were very funny.

It is a shame  that we will never know how great Penny's career could have been. However, he did have some big highlights where Hardaway got himself a gold medal with team USA back in 1996.

But as time went by, my appreciation for Penny grew even more so. A documentary about him appeared and I got to witness a side to Penny that I never saw before. It was about how he took over a basketball program for his friend who Desmond Merriweather who tragically died of cancer (Rest In Peace) and help create a program that was not only successful on the court, but off of it as well. I will share the link to that documentary at the end of this blog.

And then back in 2018, Penny had became the head coach back at his alma mater, the University of Memphis. Since then Penny has led the Tigers to an NIT title in 2021 and then a few years later an AAC tournament title as well.

I am so glad that Penny has found success and I pray nothing but the best for hims in the future. Thanks to the internet, people can now get to witness some of his greatest moments. It is amazing to see him finally get his due. God Bless ya Penny.

Here is the link to that documentary.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPSkIvmIY1M

Hope and Pray you guys like this blog.

God Bless and Be Safe! 

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