In late 2024, Penny Hardaway sat down with Sports Illustrated and detailed how he thought he could’ve been one of the greats if he hadn’t gotten injured in his career. It’s a notion that many NBA experts agree upon. But months later, Penny went in-depth on how the injuries derailed his career.
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Hardaway was one of the most talented players from the get-go when he joined the NBA in 1993. He could shoot, pass, play defense, and was incredibly athletic. By 1997, Penny had already amassed three All-NBA awards, three All-Star appearances, an Olympic gold medal, and an NBA Finals appearance. He was on his way to becoming one of the greats like Michael Jordan.
“I definitely feel like at my pace I was going, I could have done some phenomenal things and been in the conversation of being the GOAT with Michael (Jordan), Kobe (Bryant), LeBron (James), and all those guys. It’s just unfortunate that I got hurt,” Hardaway told Sports Illustrated.
It was a lofty assumption for Penny to make. However, many NBA pundits and analysts would say the same. Hardaway was one of the toughest players to guard at the time, and his defense was second to none.
“I’m not just bragging,” Hardaway continued. “God-given talent of height, speed, athleticism, shooting ability, post-ups … it’s not many people that had that entire package.” But disaster struck for Hardaway in 1997 when he needed to have left knee surgery. It was the second significant lower body surgery of his career to that point. After that, he was never the same.
Now, months later, Penny joined The OGs podcast with Udonis Haslem to expand on his injury troubles. “I felt embarrassed if I got to a point to where I couldn’t just run up and down the court,” Hardaway shared.
And it indeed got to that point at times for Penny. He detailed how there were times after games when he could hardly walk. This led to him missing some games, which Hardaway hated. In fact, he would often play through the pain just to be out there for his teammates because it’s how he was raised.
“I was so tough-minded,” Penny stated. “I was like, I’m going to play through this sh*t. And I was out there limping. If you watch me later when I started having surgeries, I would never fully heal. And I don’t know, I was just saying if I’m at 80%, I’m as good as anybody. Let me just get out here and help my team. I never fully healed. That was the toughness that I got taught… It really ruined my career.”
Toughness is often looked at as a skill that defines great players. But we don’t ever think about the players whose toughness hindered their potential career output. Hardaway was one of those athletes. He had a hard time sitting idly by, even when he was slightly healthy, and he ultimately paid the long-term price.
Penny Hardaway is one of the guys that teams cite the most when they defend injury management for their star players. It may not be what is best for TV and ratings, but at the end of the day, sometimes it’s worth sitting your stars for an extra game or two, as they work back from injury. Hardaway would probably agree with that idea.
