Morning Tip Mailbag: Your questions on future Hall of Famers, Mario Hezonja and more
David Aldridge TNT Analyst
@daldridgetntArchive
Sep 17, 2018 9:55 AM ET
In the 1990s, it didn't take Penny Hardaway long to rise to stardom in the NBA.
A Penny for Your Thoughts. From
Nick Ivory:
I appreciate
your write up on Chris Webber, he's always been one of my favorites. I have another guy who I think should be in the hall because of your two-question criteria: Penny Hardaway. When you talk about overall basketball contributions, he averaged 36.6 ppg and 10.1 rpg in high school and, in college, he changed the atmosphere at then Memphis State as a two-time All American
In the NBA, he was a four-time All-Star, a two-time All-NBA first team member and made an All-NBA third team, too. He also led the Magic to The Finals in his second season. These things you know, of course, but I just wish that people would understand his impact on the game as well. His numbers overall aren't the greatest due to injuries but neither are Bill Walton's. It would be great to see a similar write-up on my guy, Penny Hardaway.
Penny Hardaway talks about his heyday with the Orlando Magic.
You can certainly make a case for Penny, Nick. Based on my Andrew Toney Test described last week, even though Penny’s elite days as a pro were limited because of injury, he was surely dominant when he was healthy. He and Shaq were pretty dominant in those years when the Magic made The Finals and were the only Eastern Conference team in seven years to beat a Bulls team with Michael Jordan on it. Humbly, I would say C-Webb has a better case than Penny, though, based on his high school and college play/influence as well as what he did in the pros.
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My 1¢ thoughts
Okay i might be a little bias cause as a kid I actually had nba heros and penny hardaway was one of them and my dad brought me penny 2s in the 4th grade which only few people had due to jordan popularity which is my Do or die favorite basketball kicks in my collection.
The man took out the bulls & MJ in the eastern conference. Put some respect on his name for doing that. Im sure it wasn't easy. But yeah he should've been HOF status even if he had crippling injuries his loce for the game and impact to basketball culture is more than what any player can achieve in his limited nba career.