For 18 years, Trevor Ariza was one of the league’s prototype 3-and-d wings. However, growing up, his basketball idol was none other than Penny Hardaway. The 2009 NBA champion was on Iman Shumpert’s podcast and shared a hot take about the Orlando Magic’s wiry 6’7 point guard.
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“Penny, like growing up, he was the standard… For two years, Penny Hardaway was better than Michael Jordan,” Ariza proclaimed to the hosts.
This is certainly high praise. It’s easier to consider with a grain of salt because Hardaway joined the league in 1993, after MJ had already completed his first three-peat.
Ariza clarified that Hardaway had a leg up on MJ around 1994-95, the year of Jordan’s return from retirement. Iman was clearly team Jordan, but he did understand Ariza’s favoritism towards Hardaway.
“Penny was one of my favorites too. I loved big point guards, I wanted to be a big point guard…Your lineup now has to switch, you’ve got to hide your point guard somewhere else. I always enjoyed watching that,” Shumpert explained.
He added how the Chicago Bulls might have countered the presence of Penny Hardaway in the East by signing a taller, defensive point guard in Ron Harper.
It wasn’t enough for them in 1995 though. The year Mike returned to the NBA, he lost his only postseason series since 1991. It came at the hands of Shaquille O’Neal and Penny Hardaway, who dispatched the Bulls in 6 games during Round 2 of the playoffs. However, there was a special, often overlooked moment in that series, that speaks to the legacy of Hardaway.
MJ rocked Hardaway’s shoes in Game 3
Just a few months after announcing, “I’m back”, MJ found himself facing the young duo of Shaq and Penny in the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals. In Game 3, with the series tied, Jordan made the unique decision of lacing up a pair of black Air Flight Ones.
Nike had released Hardaway’s signature line earlier that year and Hardaway himself couldn’t believe that Mike was wearing his shoes. “He’s Michael Jordan, He was the man. He didn’t ask me for them. He just told Nike to give them to him,” Penny later recalled.
However, that would be the end of the pleasantries exchange between Hardaway and Jordan. After the Magic eliminated the Bulls, Mike’s fanfare for the young guard went out the window and he set about on a revenge mission. “Once he got that year under his belt, and he got his feet back wet, he went right back into pitbull mode, and it was over,” Hardaway humbly admitted.
The next season, Michael Jordan led Chicago to a 72-10 season while winning his fourth MVP award, fourth NBA championship and fourth Finals MVP. The cherry on top of this layer cake was the Eastern Conference Finals, where MJ’s Bulls swept the Penny Hardaway and the Orlando Magic.
