Yes, I did. So there it is. My favorite picture ever. March 18, 1999. I was working at Tower Records in Massapequa, Long Island at the time (yes it was as cool as the movie Empire Records made it seem) and my friend there, Eddy, also was a ballboy for the Knicks (still works there!) My Penny obsession came known to him and he was like, “I know Penny. He’s my boy. Let’s go to a game. You can meet him.” I was like NO WAY.
So let’s back up a smidge…Penny was drafted by the Golden State Warriors in the 1993 NBA Draft as the third overall pick. The Magic drafted Chris Webber number 1 overall. And the 76ers REALLY messed up by drafting 7’6” Shawn Bradley (my nickname in high school because of my freakish height and whiteness) 2nd overall. There was some chatter and a draft day trade, and Chris Webber and Penny switched teams that night, beginning what could have been one of the most dominant duos in NBA History with Penny and Shaq.
I’ve been a Knicks fan my whole life (sorry). But there was something about Penny that just instantly captured me. I took interest in the Magic the year before because of how fun Shaq was to watch. Then when they got Penny (who I knew NOTHING about while he was in college in Memphis), I fell in love almost immediately.
Penny was a 6’7”, 195 lb. point guard, the ‘next Magic Johnson’ they said. They weren’t wrong. He was a freak athlete, could shoot, dribble, pass, steal, and jump out of the building…
He was the most finesse player I’d ever seen. The late 80’s and early to mid 90’s style of basketball was TOUGH, with “my” Knicks leading the way. They’d hit you. Make you bleed. Knock you down. Make you bleed again. The Knicks were tough. One of my favorite Knicks of the time, this beast of a man named Anthony Mason (RIP) was the most intimidating person I’d ever seen and one time he slapped me a high five at a pre-season game and almost broke my wrist in 15 places. He was strong.
So when someone like Penny came along and was this graceful perfect player…I was torn! Do I like my rough and tough Knicks still or this Penny guy? Can I root for both??? (I did). I started watching every Magic game I could. Thankfully they aired quite a few in NY because they were the new up and coming exciting team. I remember joining any America Online group I could about the Magic or the NBA in general. I would get my parent’s newspaper every morning before school and quickly flip to the box scores in the sports section to see how Penny did the night before if I didn’t get to see any on TV. (This whole paragraph for anybody under 30ish probably makes NO sense)
Speaking of AOL, I would print out EVERY SINGLE PICTURE I could find online of Penny and hang them all over my room. My bedroom when I was 15 years old was 90% Penny Hardaway pictures and a few Wu-Tang posters. No chicks allowed! I must have went thru about $500 worth of printer ink.
So, The Magic got VERY good very fast. They made the finals the 2nd year Penny and Shaq were together (and got swept by the Rockets, whatever). Penny and Shaq got a gold medal for Team USA in 1996. Then Shaq left to the Lakers. Oh no. What would this mean for Penny? It would mean he was the leader of the team now and went on a tear and was basically the MVP for half of that season until…injuries.
Penny is one of the biggest what-ifs in sports because he rose SO fast to the top but then a couple of big injuries one after another really put the brakes on what was about to be a Top 10 Player of All Time career.
So back to 1999. The 98-99 season was Penny’s last in Orlando. He went to Phoenix after and had a good year or 2 before injuries really decimated what was left. Sad. But me and Eddy go to Madison Square Garden, with another friend Chris from Tower Records. I remember Eddy stuffing us in the ballboys locker room/waiting area before the game started. As we’re waiting, the Knicks players start coming in and taking food and water and stuff. Patrick Ewing. Larry Johnson. Allan Houston. Herb Williams! They all just nodded at us like “what’s up?” and we all nodded back in awe like “hey what’s up". I was always tall but seeing some people WAY taller than me was fun.
So after the game, Eddy gets me and we’re waiting in the tunnel near the locker room. He’s like, “Penny said he’d come out and say hi.” I was freaking out. I was wearing my Magic jersey and I had a sharpie on me (this sharpie had like the equivalent of 2% battery left. It was very dull.) So I look up and Penny is walking towards me. He gives Eddy a hug and Eddy said, “Yo Penny. This is my man Brian. Big fan.” Penny extends his hand, politely says, “Oh thanks. What’s up Brian?” and all I could do was extend my hand, hand him the sharpie, and say…
That’s it. All I could muster up was a grunt. I meant to say, “Wow so nice to meet you can you sign my jersey?” I was shaking. I was nervous. I was sweating. I was pale (look at the picture up top again). I couldn’t even talk to him. So he takes the sharpie, signs my jersey THAT I’M CURRENTLY WEARING ON MY BODY and says nice to meet you. He hands me his arm band he wore during the game (my most prized possession of my life until…sigh…it went missing during a move once. Don’t wanna talk about it, but here it is…)
So Penny and Eddy hug one more time (jealous!) and Penny starts to leave but a ball boy is wheeling a big laundry cart down the tunnel. We all had to “GET TO ONE SIDE!” and I move against the wall and Penny does that thing to me where like if you brake too hard in a car you put your arm across the passenger next to you to make sure they don’t get hurt. It was the most amazing 8 seconds of my life.
Currently Penny is the coach of his alma mater, the University of Memphis. And he’s doing great and always will do great because he’s the best. It was awesome of my wife to let me name our first born after him too.
Anytime we move, I have to know where I’m setting up the Penny cardboard.
To end, I’ve been very lucky to meet Penny. I went back the next year with Eddy and met Penny again and he actually signed the first picture. He was with the Phoenix Suns then so it was cool that he did that.
I still regularly watch Penny clips on YouTube. He did so much in such a short prime window that there’s hours you can watch. I try to force my daughter Penny to watch some with me and she does sometimes but not all the time. She’ll get it one day. If you’d like to watch a quick TOP 50 PLAYS here you go. I’ve seen it already.
Do you have a favorite player or celebrity or anyone who’s made you feel this way too after you met them? I can’t be the only one. Let me know! Leave a comment. Subscribe. Share. All that fun stuff. Thanks for reading. Hope it was a slam dunk! (Substack just informed me that they’re canceling my account due to that slam dunk joke. Dammit.)
As a long suffering Orlando Magic fan, this one got me good. My 2 year old is obsessed with Stuff the Magic dragon. My favorite player was T-Mac, so maybe the wife will let me name baby #2 Tracy haha.
I was a big 90s basketball fan, but never met any players. I did meet a celebrity who inspired me a great deal: the 1960s comedian Stan Freberg. It was at comic-con and he was surprised someone as young as me knew his work so well. The photo of us meeting hangs at my desk. He’s my Penny. Did an incredible amount of work in a relatively short amount of time.