One player whose name isn’t often mentioned in discussions regarding the all-time greats at the point guard position is Penny Hardaway. Perhaps it’s because his career peak lasted only four seasons. His prime was cut short by injuries that stripped him of the athleticism that made him a premier playmaker in an era featuring equally versatile players like Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Grant Hill.
Horace Grant, who played alongside Penny on the Orlando Magic for three seasons, was convinced of Penny’s future greatness, particularly after their team reached the NBA Finals in the 1994-95 season.
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The next Magic
Long before LeBron James arrived in the NBA and set the bar high for what it meant to be a versatile player in the big league, the standard-bearer at that time was Los Angeles Lakers icon Magic Johnson. He was a rare breed in the league, a 6’9″ point guard who could play any position, including center if the need arose.
According to Horace, Penny had all the tools to follow in Magic’s enormous footsteps. At 6’7″, he had the size, and he also possessed nifty ball-handling skills, rare court vision and elite passing abilities.
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“Listen, other than injuries, he was the next Magic Johnson,” Horace declared. “I watched this young man — when Shaq would foul out, Penny would take over a game and lead us to victory.”
Penny’s NBA career got off to an intriguing start as Magic fans criticized the team’s move to acquire him in exchange for the top pick of the 1993 NBA Draft, Chris Webber. However, he didn’t take long to convince everyone that the team made the right call. He immediately formed a dynamic duo with Shaquille O’Neal.
By his second season, the Magic were already in the NBA Finals. Although they got swept by Hakeem Olajuwon and the Houston Rockets, Penny had already proven himself to be a superstar in the league, having earned All-Star and First Team All-NBA honors.
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Horace said there was literally nothing Hardaway could not do on the basketball floor.
“I mean, he had the three-point shot, he had the post-up game, he had the mid-range game — you name it,” Horace asserted.
Penny patterned his game after Magic’s
It was no coincidence that Horace saw a lot of Magic in Penny’s game. After all, Penny watched a lot of his games growing up. Unlike NBA media today, where fans can access any game they want at a moment’s notice, this mechanism wasn’t available then.
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The Magic legend had to watch whatever game was shown on TV back in the day, and more often than not, it featured the Purple and Gold and their charismatic point guard. While it was easy to pick up on Magic’s flashy passes nightly, Penny gravitated more towards how he made his teammates feel.
“I wanted to make my teammates feel like how he made his teammates feel. And he made his teammates feel great. They wanted the ball in his hands because they knew he was going to make the right decisions,” Penny stated.
“That’s what he did for me. I never saw him miss anybody open. And man, I just tried to mimic that every single night. Even though I could score, I was athletic, I still just tried to make everybody else better around me. That just meant a lot to me,” he added.
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Penny had the tools to become the next Magic or perhaps even surpass him. However, a knee injury he suffered in the 1996 playoffs placed him on a path from which he would never recover. Although he still played 14 seasons, he couldn’t reach the same level of dominance and success he had before the injury.
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Sep 17, 2025, where it first appeared in the Off The Court section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.