The mid-nineties were a great time. Back when Nickelodeon was still worth watching, Biggie and Pac were on top of the rap game, and Penny Hardaway was on a collision course with superstardom. He was Lebron James before Lebron James. Hardawy was a lanky 6'7 guard with a gumby cut on a Magic team that was ready to take the Eastern Conference by storm. He also had classic Nikes on the market in the midddle of an era packed with ugly sneakers. His commercials were some of the best Nike ads that have ever come out. He had Tyra Banks in many of the commercials and this is when Tyra Banks was TYRA BANKS. He earned cool points just for that. And Lil Penny was the man. He headlined Hardaway's commercials, had an opening scene for NBA on NBC for the 96 Playoffs, and was even in Blackstreet's No Digity video. Penny just flat out had the game on lock and it looked like he'd be the guy to step into an aging Michael Jordan's role as the face of the NBA. Unfortunately for us all, that never happened. Injuries brought Penny's quickly rising star to a hault. Hardaway would never get his swagger back after the surgeries. He stuck around for a while, but he just wasn't the same. Despite the unfortunate events that ended Penny's career, he will always be remembered as the kid from Memphis State who changed the game.
No comments:
Post a Comment