Penny Hardaway may not have enjoyed a lengthy prime, but he still has a lot to be proud of in his NBA career, especially during his time with the Orlando Magic. For one, it was in Orlando where Hardaway flourished and formed a dynamic duo with Shaquille O’Neal.
Apart from that, Penny takes pride in his Magic squad being the only team to beat prime Michael Jordan and the notourius Chicago Bulls in the 90s.
“We obviously caught Michael at a great time (with him) just coming back from baseball,” Hardaway said on ESPN’s The Jump in 2020 via Commercial Appeal. “But at the end of the day, we do have those bragging rights as the last team … during that span to have beaten that team — that great team.”
MJ’s revenge
Taking a quick trip down memory lane, Hardaway and the Magic were able to take advantage of Jordan’s absence in the better part of the 1994-95 season. They finished the campaign as the best team in the East but crossed paths with the Bulls in the Eastern semis. At the time, MJ was already back.
Hardaway was well aware that Jordan would make a vengeful comeback. True to form, the Bulls finished the season with a historic 72-10 record and swept the Magic in the Eastern Conference finals the following year.
“You could tell that [Jordan] he was a bad dude, man. The respect was always there, but my thing was you had to attack him before he attacked us. But all we did was piss him off,” Hardaway once reflected.
“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,” he added.
Penny and the Magic vanished into the abyss
After losing to the Bulls in ’96, the Magic faced several challenges. Among them was O’Neal’s controversial exit. Left as the lone leader of the team, Hardaway did his best to pick up where they left off. However, injuries began to plague the All-Star point guard, and the once powerhouse Magic squad eventually fell apart.
Penny then got traded to the Phoenix Suns but never returned to his All-Star form. But even though injuries dimmed his career, Hardaway is still at peace with how everything played out. Despite the what-ifs, many still remember Penny as one of the most talented guards and one who could say he once beat Jordan in the playoffs during the 1990s.
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