Back In The Day NBA

What Could Have Been? Penny Hardaway, LeBron, Jordan, Kobe In GOAT Conversation

Ivan Carter

Memphis men’s basketball coach Penny Hardaway speaks with players and Memphis staff after a press conference where Memphis’ new athletic director, Ed Scott, was introduced at the Laurie-Walton Family Basketball Center in Memphis, Tenn., on Friday, June 28, 2024.
Memphis men’s basketball coach Penny Hardaway speaks with players and Memphis staff after a press conference where Memphis’ new athletic director, Ed Scott, was introduced at the Laurie-Walton Family Basketball Center in Memphis, Tenn., on Friday, June 28, 2024. / Chris Day/The Commercial Appeal / USA

By nearly every measure, Penny Hardaway had a fantastic basketball career.

After starring for his hometown University of Memphis Tigers in college, Hardaway played 14 NBA seasons, was a four time All-Star, two time first team All-NBA. He and Shaquille O'Neal helped guide the Orland Magic to the 1995 NBA Finals and won an gold medal with the 1996 US Olympic team.

However, to a generation that has grown up hearing about Michael Jordan and watching Kobe Bryant followed by LeBron James and now the current wave of starts, Hardaway is often overlooked. As with many would-be GOATs - think Bill Walton, Grant Hill and Derrick Rose to name a few - Hardaway was done wrong by injury. He suffered his first knee injury in the 1996 playoffs, admittedly came back too soon and never really the kind of explosiveness that had many comparing him to the GOAT himself.

Comparisons to His Airness kicked into high gear after Hardaway, O'Neal and the Magic knocked off Jordan and the Bulls in the 1995 Eastern Conference semifinals. The Magic were swept by Hakeem Olajuwon and the Houston Rockets in the Finals but the future appeared to be going through Orlando. It never happened. Hardaway started getting hurt. O'Neal left for the Los Angeles Lakers and the rest is left to the imagination.

Today Hardaway is healthy and happy coaching his Memphis Tigers at the NCAA level and he remains the subject of many a barbershop and barstool conversation about what was and what may have been. Good thing film is still floating around from his pre-injury days.....

Ivan Carter is a contributor to Back In The Day Hoops On SI. He can be reached at Oleswin1@gmail.com

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Ivan Carter

IVAN CARTER