BTP - Nike Penny Hardaway
We have this crazy cool Vintage Deadstock Nike Penny Hardaway T-Shirt here. Also make sure you check out our current NBA selection here.
As a senior at Treadwell High School in Memphis, he averaged 37 PPG, 10 RPG, 6 APG and 3 BPG while being named “Parade’s Prep Player of the Year”.
Once he attended Memphis State, he led the team during his sophomore and junior season and was named an All-American in back-to-back years.
He was very lucky to even be able to walk, he got shot in the ankle during a shooting in his neighborhood in Memphis.
Hardaway was selected by the Golden State Warriors in the first round of the 1993 NBA Draft (3rd pick overall), but was traded along with three future first-round picks to the Orlando Magic for the rights to 1st overall pick Chris Webber.
As a rookie, people were already touting him as a sure-fire All-Star and a possible heir to Michael Jordan’s throne.
They still got swept by MJ and the Bulls in the 1996 Eastern Conference Finals...
By Year 3, Shaq-n-Penny was an emerging candidate to eventually become one of the great Dynamic Duos in league history.
They could've been one of the best duos ever!
During the mid-90s, he exploded onto the scene with the Magic’s and quickly became a fan favorite around the nation.
That led to an immediate backing from Nike and a series of one of the most memorable sneakers of the decade. His signature series would include five equally classic iterations, and with the help of one of our era’s best (if not the best) commercial campaigns, his shoes still remain some of the most sought-after basketball sneakers Nike has ever produced.
The most special one was the Nike “Air Foamposite One”. Foamposite is a polyurethane liquid that is heated and molded to create a glove-like fit on a shoe. They sought out companies from all over the world to find a way to manufacture the shoe and finally found their ally in the car industry.
The air Foamposite One was included in Nike’s iconic series of phone ad’s. The print featured a phone number, which you could call and hear a message with some information about the sneaker.
The shoe was debuted in 1997, but it wasn’t on the feet of it’s signature athlete…
Mike Bibby was the first to wear them in a game after Nike gave it to him before they even got released. Guess what. Penny was mad.
The league actually did not approve of the shoe, as the wasn’t enough black in to match the Orlando Magic uniform.
To combat this, Penny just colored parts of the Foamposite upper in with black Sharpie.
In 1997 Hardaway suffered a devastating knee injury. With time, various knee, foot and back injuries began to pile up. After his Orlando heyday, he was unceremoniously traded, benched and waived by the like of the Suns, Hear and the historically dysfunctional Knicks.
Hardaway may not have delivered on the promise that he would take the torch from Jordan when MJ retired, but it’s important to note that the promise was there, and it was legit, once upon a time.