- [Man] This is a special image.
It depicts a seam in the
fabric of NBA history
where two eras met. Magic
Johnson broke the mold
to become the greatest NBA
point guard of the 80's.
Penny Hardaway showed eerily
similar promise in the 90's.
For a couple nights Magic
and the so-called next Magic
shared a court.
This is the story of
two dazzling exceptions
and what happened when
their career's overlapped.
In the late 80's,
a Memphis high school basketball player
began to garner national attention.
Anfernee Hardaway arrived on the scene
with a great nickname, Penny,
but the peers and scouts
Hardaway impressed
gave him another label.
The next Magic. That was a big comparison.
It meant a lot of things.
Earvin Johnson defied
basketball orthodoxy.
At six foot nine and well over 200 pounds,
Johnson had the powerful
body of a forward,
but he carried it with
enough grace and dexterity
to play point guard,
a role usually reserved
for the littlest players.
That's what made him Magic.
From school to even his
earliest days in the pros,
Magic Johnson ranked
among his teams' leaders
in points, rebounds and assists.
His production pushed the NBA
to start keeping track of triple doubles,
which they hadn't even
done for Oscar Robertson,
but Earvin Johnson didn't buy his nickname
with production alone.
The Magic was in his unmatched flair,
the palpable joy with which he played
and in his undeniable stardom.
This is Magic in the 1977
Michigan High School championship.
He's one of the biggest
players on the floor,
but here he is flicking a
touch pass to a teammate
who's just become open.
Here he is dribbling
the length of the court
and perfectly timing an
entry to a backdoor cutter.
A couple of years later,
Johnson led the Michigan State Spartans
to the 1979 NCAA Championship.
Here he is flashing some signature
magic in the Elite Eight.
He freezes the Notre Dame
defender with his eyes,
then whips a no-look
assist to the trailer.
Later that year, Magic arrived
as a pro on a Lakers team
already featuring multiple stars,
including a legendary center
in Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Playing point guard on these Lakers
was a daunting assignment
for a 20-year old,
and yet here's Magic
in his first NBA game,
anticipating a pass, slipping traffic
with a full speed wraparound dribble,
then leaping to feint one
way and pass the other.
Magic could take over as finisher
and post presence when called upon.
Just look how the rookie
performed without Kareem
to clinch his first championship.
But for much of his career,
Johnson wasn't the first scoring option.
His chief role was ball
handler and distributor,
quarterback of the offense,
not a point forward,
but a true full-time one.
Intrigued by this anomaly,
observers went fishing
for the future version.
It became kind of cliche to anoint
any tallish basketball prospect
with point guard skills
the next Magic.
Danny Manning, Lloyd
Daniels, Sean Elliott,
George McCloud, all closer
to seven feet than six.
All exhibiting some guard-like tendencies
and statistical profiles,
but Magic himself kept raising the bar
for what it would take to succeed him.
By the time Penny Hardaway
entered college in 1990,
Johnson held three NBA finals MVP awards,
three league MVPs, and a
fistful of championship rings.
And he was a star off the court
with more than enough personality
to fill the LA spotlight.
Heroic and victorious,
lovable and marketable.
So, the next Magic signified way more
than be tall, pass good,
yet people kept saying it
about Hardaway and meant it.
It began of course, with
the size to skill ratio.
Hardaway honed his ball handling,
passing, and agility as a five
foot eight middle-schooler.
Then he grew almost a foot in high school.
Those who watched a six foot seven player
lead his team in points,
rebounds and assists
at multiple levels couldn't help
but make the usual comparison.
Those words came from fellow players.
Hardaway just had so many passes.
The words came from a scout
who'd studied Earvin
Johnson as a teen prospect.
After 10 years of searching,
he'd finally glimpsed
the next Magic.
Observers saw Magic not
just in Penny's game,
but his personality.
As for the kid himself,
a high school aged Hardaway
downplayed the comparisons,
but he did love to pass
since it kept all his teammates happy.
And that was absolutely inspired
by the NBA's biggest great point guard.
Hardaway didn't achieve
the same collegiate glory
as Johnson, but he did look very promising
and very cool playing at Memphis State.
Watch a guy big enough to
finish this alley-oop with ease
and deft enough to
throw this lob of his own
from near half court,
watch him drag a defender one way
knowing full well he's
going to pass the other way.
Watch this unbelievable
wraparound backhanded feed
that should have been illegal
to ruin with a blocked shot.
Watching from the booth
at one of Penny's games,
Magic sounded impressed.
- You know, not only is he
quick, but he's fast too.
Yeah, there's Hardaway getting ready.
And I tell you,
you're talking about
somebody who can do it all.
Pass it, shoot it, rebound it, it's him.
- Johnson was basically
describing himself there
and he intended to.
Magic and Penny shared the court
when college players trained
alongside Olympians in 1992.
Magic described the meeting
as like looking in a mirror
and facing myself.
By his junior season,
Penny spent less time
denying the comparison
and joked about bringing
even more to the table.
And there were distinctions.
Penny's coach noted that
his tall point guard
wasn't as strong as Magic,
but developing in the
era of the three pointer
projected to be a superior shooter.
In any case, draft night
would present an important juncture.
Most high picks are
called upon to resuscitate
sorry, empty franchises,
but just like Magic Johnson landing in LA,
Penny got lucky.
Around the time Hardaway
declared for the 1993 draft,
he did some acting in the film Blue Chips
alongside Shaquille O'Neal.
O'Neal had been the
Orlando Magic's first pick
in the 1992 draft.
Even as a rookie, Shaq showed the promise
to be the NBA's next great center,
the Kareem of a new generation,
but Orlando finished just
short of the playoffs
tipping into the 1993 draft lottery.
In an odds defying
miracle, they won it again.
So not long after Shaq got
to know Penny's personality
and game on the film set,
his employer held the first draft pick.
Chris Webber sat atop most draft boards,
but Shaq knew who he wanted.
Orlando executive Pat Williams
watched Penny work out, saw what others saw,
and cleverly traded
down to make it happen.
Like his forerunner, Penny
entered the league on a good team
with a tremendous center.
The letters stitched across
his chest, read like kismet.
If Shaq was the modern day Kareem,
Penny wanted to be his Magic.
In a perfect world,
the rookie Hardaway could
have proved his worthiness
against the man himself,
but the real Magic was gone.
In November 1991 32-year old Magic Johnson
stunned the world by announcing
he had tested positive
for HIV and would retire from
pro basketball immediately.
The ensuing years were a whirlwind.
Johnson became a new
prominent face representing
and answerable to whole communities.
Communities who had for over
a decade been suffering.
Magic's fame and fortune
afforded him the best treatment
while also inviting public scrutiny
like speculation about his
relationships and sexuality.
Johnson endeavored to
dispel stigma around HIV
and its transmission, playing
in the 1992 NBA All-Star Game
and the Olympics that summer.
He began an NBA comeback
in the 1992 preseason,
but cut it short amid public disapproval
from players like Karl Malone.
By the time Hardaway
debuted in the fall of 1993,
Johnson was 34 and
still outside the league
devoting his time to charity and activism.
When Johnson returned to
the NBA later that season,
it was as Lakers coach.
So, this NBA newcomer was the
preeminent tall point guard,
but he wasn't a point guard to start.
Orlando coach Brian Hill already
had veterans Scott Skiles
in that position.
Hardaway played off the ball
while he learned the ropes,
which took some time.
Penny got booed the first
time he ever took the court
in Orlando for a variety of reasons,
but there were flashes, more and more.
After Hardaway's first big
assist game in December,
Coach Hill felt compelled
to defend Skiles's hold
on the point guard spot,
but Skiles couldn't keep up.
He was entering his 30's,
managing back pain, and
going through a divorce.
Hardaway gradually took
over and flourished.
He won rookie of the month in January
and earned MVP at the '94
Rookie All-Star Event.
Hardaway started to show he
could be not just a star,
but an on-ball star like
Magic Johnson before him.
Unlike Johnson, a rookie Hardway
didn't lead his team to playoff success.
Reggie Miller's Pacers swept the Magic
in Orlando's first ever playoff series.
In Hardaway's second season,
the comparisons came back for real.
Penny put up splendid
point guard-ly numbers,
including a 35 point
triple-double against the Bucks.
He produced dazzling highlights
like this demonstration
of strength and precision
that had announcers
invoking that familiar name.
- [Announcer] Unbelievable,
that was a Magic Johnson play there.
- [Man] He joined Shaq
as an all-star starter
and his fame blossomed with exposure
like a Sports Illustrated
cover that invented a new word
to describe Penny's position
and a sneaker commercial
in which he literally jumped a shark.
The Magic really had their own Magic
and Penny had fun playing that role.
Though, he did feel its weight
every time Magic himself echoed the hype,
but Penny and company
handled the pressure.
The '95 Magic rolled to the best record
in the Eastern conference.
They won their first playoff series.
They spoiled Michael Jordan's
return from retirement.
They got revenge on Reggie and the Pacers
to reach the franchise's first NBA Finals.
Penny played sensationally
throughout the '95 playoffs,
but Orlando couldn't stop Hakeem Olajuwon
and couldn't finish games
against the defending champion Rockets
who won it all in a sweep.
Onward and upward though.
Injury sideline Shaq for a
significant chunk of '95-'96,
and the big guy's impending
free agency grabbed headlines.
Hardaway, meanwhile,
developed as a point guard
and assumed more scoring duties.
Orlando remained elite.
The only Eastern team within arm's reach
of the rebooted Bulls.
Off the court, Hardaway's
mellow personality
didn't command attention
like Magic Johnson once had,
but Nike found its own way
to market the young all-star.
Yes, that is a puppet.
His name is Lil Penny.
He was voiced by Chris Rock.
And please just trust me that
if you were a child in 1996,
Lil Penny was very cool.
So Hardaway wasn't a champion yet,
but he was a big superstar point guard
maturing beside a monumental center.
It wasn't outlandish to call Hardaway
the Magic Johnson of the 90's.
And then the real Magic came back.
After his brief stint as coach,
Johnson had bought a
Lakers ownership stake,
and expanded his interests
outside basketball,
both as an activist and businessman.
Johnson had also stayed
in shape by playing pickup
and exhibition ball and lifting weights
to bulk up his frame.
In January 1996, Magic began
practicing with the Lakers.
On January 30th, over four years
since his shocking
retirement, Johnson returned.
The Lakers hardly resembled
the team he'd left
and Magic hardly resembled
the player who'd left them.
He was 36 years old and
around 30 pounds heavier
than his former playing weight.
More like a forward now,
especially with electrifying youngster,
Nick Van Exel at point, but he was Magic.
He finished just short of a triple-double
in his first game back and from there,
helped LA to a February win streak
and a strong start to March.
And on March 17th, 1996,
the Lakers got a visit
from the road-weary,
injury riddled Orlando Magic.
Facing a legend sounded
like just the wake up
Hardaway and company needed.
Penny reiterated how comparisons
between himself and Magic presented
both encouragement and pressure.
He expressed admiration,
but said he was more interested
in defining his own game
than patterning of Johnson.
And on that topic,
one of the main stories coming
from a happy LA locker room
was that of Magic's young teammates
still getting accustomed
to his slick passes.
He still had that.
Magic checked in a slower, bulkier player
than the one who inspired
Penny's joy for passing,
but he promptly whipped a
one-handed sidearm bounce pass
right through Penny's fingertips
to find Cedric Ceballos
slipping to the rim.
A few minutes later,
Magic threw a similar
pass on the diagonal.
Wizardry notwithstanding,
Magic played much more
like a traditional big man.
He posted up not just smaller
players like Dennis Scott,
but bigger players like Horace Grant.
Johnson's calf seized up
in the second quarter,
perhaps a victim of the game's fast pace.
He returned still determined to create
even out of the post like
this fancy, frivolous dish
to Elden Campbell.
Hardaway too had a night in
which his best passing came
from the post.
Look how his height allows him
to glance over help defense
and swing the ball to the weak side
for a Dennis Scott three.
A relatively quiet outing for both players
ended in narrow Orlando victory.
The papers noted Magic's strained calf
only further diminished his lost mobility.
The rematch came just nine
days later in Orlando.
Penny sounded more excited this time,
eager to perform at home in
the presence of a legend.
He said he'd been a little
too pumped up last time
and needed to calm down.
In the intervening days,
Magic had become a starter,
replacing not Van Exel at point guard,
but the young high scoring
small forward Cedric Ceballos.
That was the big storyline at the time
since a pissed off Ceballos
had reacted by taking an
unannounced water ski vacation
in Arizona, but another narrative
would prove more important
in the long run.
Magic Johnson was recruiting.
The man who earlier in the season
had pulled Hardaway aside
to share some advice
about playing point guard
alongside a superstar big man
now publicly courted that
very same superstar big man.
Asked about Shaq's looming free agency,
Johnson said he knows we want him.
It could be like old
times with him and Kareem.
That was a thrilling prospect for a kid
who grew up loving the Showtime Lakers
and wore Kareem's number
in high school and college.
All this chatter came in a moment
when the Magic were
squashing rumors of conflict
between Shaq and Penny.
Intrigue, but first basketball.
Well, first this warm
and foreboding exchange
between Magic and the apple of his eye.
Hardaway played better this time,
capitalizing on his size
for buckets like this one
in which he fought off
some help from Magic
to finish inside.
But Penny faded in the second half
and a huge Lakers run included Johnson
leading this textbook three
on two break right at Penny.
Said Penny, Magic was Magic.
The blowout defeat was remarkably
Orlando's first home loss of the season.
Of the bygone streak, Shaq said
all good things must come to an end.
Indeed they do.
The Lakers season ended in a first round
playoff defeat against the Rockets.
Johnson's last month or
two had been a mixed bag.
And he wasn't pleased with
how little point guarding
he'd done during the post-season.
A couple of weeks later,
he announced his retirement
on his own terms this time
and for good.
Later that month, Orlando failed to match
the prior season's success,
falling to MJ and the Bulls
in a conference final sweep.
A deflated Hardaway didn't want to be
mentioned alongside the retiring great.
Without a championship,
there was no comparison
and Penny would never
get that close again.
Amid further rumors of a rift,
Shaq left for the Lakers
in the summer of '96.
When he was young,
Shaq had envisioned himself on the end
of a Magic Johnson pass.
Now he'd forsaken the so-called next Magic
only to just miss playing
with the original Magic.
Without the next Kareem by his side,
the next Magic had to adjust.
Unlike his forerunner,
Hardaway now had to lead
without a real co-star.
Maybe point guard wasn't
the most effective role
for a top scorer.
Johnson himself had already
reappraised Hardaway
as more of a shooting guard
than a point guard like himself.
Maybe Penny's template
should be Michael, not Magic,
a scorer, not an unusually
tall distributor.
As Orlando changed coaches
twice in 1997 alone,
Hardaway shifted away from the ball.
Shots up, assists down.
He scored plenty in a
first round playoff series
against the Heat,
but Orlando fell in the decisive game five
and then the injuries began.
Knees, ankles, one surgery after another.
Penny was never himself after '97,
let alone the next Magic
or the next Michael.
Hardaway had frustrating
stints in Phoenix and New York,
retired, then made his own
return as a 36-year old
for the Heat.
Penny played a few games
alongside his old co-star
then got waived, out
of the league for good
and not on his own terms.
Shaq of course had won
championships galore
in the company of two other great guards.
Penny once sadly remarked that Kobe Bryant
got what he deserved,
but those outstanding
guards were something
other than the next Magic.
Being Magic wasn't just
playing like a point guard.
It was playing point guard joyfully,
creatively, and successfully.
That requires brilliance
and it requires the right conditions
and the right teammates.
Penny Hardaway checked an
impressive number of those boxes
before free agency and
injury derailed his rise.
Penny really did look like the next Magic
and thanks to a surprise return,
he got to show it against Magic himself.
For a moment in history,
two generational exceptions overlapped.
