How did Hardaway become an idol of that generation of young people?

In the initial stage of Penny Hardaway entering the professional arena, his name was always intertwined with Chris Weber. In the 1993 draft night, Hardaway and Weber exchanged their clubs. The former went to Orlando Techniques and the latter went to the Golden State Warriors. In the year when Jordan retired, they were deliberately made into a pair of "lifelong enemies" by the league.

On November 5, 1993, the Magic defeated the Heat at home. Hardaway started wearing the Magic No. 1 jersey, completing his career debut with 12 points, 8 assists, 8 rebounds, 5 rebounds, and 1 block. Two days later, Weber also stepped onto the NBA with the Warriors jersey. His opponent was the Houston Rockets, but the result was not very good. Weber was dealt with by Olajuwon and was tragically miserable.

In Penny Hardaway's 14-year career, except for 16 soy sauce games in the last year, all of the other 688 games were wearing the No. 1 jersey. Hardaway's No. 1 was also rated as "the greatest number in NBA history" by many media and fans. This No. 1 jersey has influenced a generation.

Four years later, on October 31, 1997, the Raptors' new season opening game, and another super rookie stepped onto the NBA battlefield. In order to pay tribute to his idol Penny Hardaway, he also chose to play in the Raptors' No. 1 jersey. The rookie's name is Tracy McGrady. When he put on his idol's number, McGrady's body also seemed to burst out with powerful strength. Chakra blew out and played for 8 minutes, without a single point.

At that time, the first choice for the Magic was naturally the Shark O'Neal. Therefore, on the offensive end, Hardaway did not obtain absolute shot rights, but he still handed over a very good report card. In his first season, Hardaway attended 82 games, averaged 36 minutes per game and obtained comprehensive data of 16+6+5+2.3 steals.

In the 24th game of the season, the Magic played against the Nets, Hardaway won his first 30+ in his career. In the 77th game against the Celtics, Hardaway scored his first triple-double in his career, with 14 points, 11 rebounds and 12 assists. In the season, Penns Hardaway was selected for the All-Star Rookie Team and won the Rookie MVP.

Under O'Neal and Hardaway, the Magic achieved a fourth record in the Western Conference with 50 wins and 32 losses, but it is obvious that they lacked some experience. They were eliminated by the experienced Indiana Pacers in the first round, against superstar Reggie Miller, rookie Hardaway was not at all disadvantage, and averaged 19+7+7+2 steals and 2 blocks per game. The combination of Hardaway and O'Neal was also trained by the Magic as the team's future. At the same time, they are also the most talented and powerful new star combination in the league.

Of course, Weber's performance is not bad either, and he averaged 17+9 per game in the regular season, and won the best week. He led the Warriors to the sixth record in the Western Conference with the same 50 wins and 32 losses as the Magic. But like the Magic, he was swept by the Suns in the first round of the playoffs, and Weber was almost beaten to death by Barkley. He had nightmares at night, and dreamed of Barkley's ass.

Web averaged 15.7 points and 8.7 rebounds per game in this round of series, but sent 9.0 assists and 3.0 turnovers. Barkley averaged a shocking 37.3 points and 13.3 rebounds per game, with a shooting percentage of up to 60.5%! Without analyzing the game, you can see from the data alone that Weber has no solution to Barkley's ass, and can only use passes to help the team score.

The entire season, Hardaway and Webber competed very fiercely for the best rookie. The six-round judges voted, only Hardaway/Webber or Webber/Hardaway, and there was no one else's share in the first and second picks.

When watching Hardaway play, he always gives people a sense of agility and elegance. Although he is more than two meters tall, his body has excellent coordination and excellent sports control and passing skills. Thanks to his height, he has excellent passing vision. In that era, Hardaway could occasionally show his hands and pass the ball behind his back without looking at others, as well as passing the ball under his crotch while he was moving.

, and Hardaway, who switched to offensive mode, has solid offensive skills, simple, practical and tough, full of American single-handed style, dribbling basically does not exceed 3 times. The key to the opponent is to attack fiercely, whether it is to rush to the basket or the periphery, the efficiency of shooting is good - the three-point shot is relatively a little bit, but the players of that era generally have not made a high three-point shooting percentage. The worst thing is that Hardaway's shooting posture is pretty good, with a 90% similarity to Jordan, and three 90 degrees are extremely positive.

The most terrible thing is that Hardaway's face is quite handsome, and even the Fireworks, who are at its peak, must avoid its sharpness.

, and Weber's data is a little better than Hardaway, and he is an inside player. In that era when insiders won the world, the star level of insiders was one level higher than that of outside players. However, Weber had many problems. His back-to-body ability can only be considered average, and he relied more on his own mid-range shots, so his style of playing seemed a little softer. Moreover, Weber had a fatal problem, that is, he met an unknown insider. Weber was full of ability, and he immediately got lost when he met a powerful center.

There was a person named Terrence Jones in the later stage of the Rockets, who was nicknamed "The Little Prince of Abusing Vegetables", which is almost the same feeling of déjà vu.

However, the biggest difference between Weber and Hardaway is not on the court, but off the court. Weber is a man who looks honest and honest, but is actually full of genius. As soon as Mane is in his hand, his heart immediately drifts away. Weber was a famous nightclub prince in that era. Guo Degang gave him the nickname "Park Yisheng". His girlfriend around him also changed like a lantern. He was summoned by the police because he fought with someone in a nightclub..

And Hardaway is a relatively introverted person. He treats people kindly like Fireworks, is civilized and polite, and sets up a new trend. Say hello Say thank you, plays diligently on the court, and the style of the game is clean and there is almost no conflict with others. He returns home after get off work and leaves his schoolbag to his grandma to keep his salary. The black buddy likes to play, Hardaway is not at all involved, and he can be called a perfect idol. In the final stage of the best rookie voting after the season, Hardaway won a 47.52% approval rating, slightly lost to Webber's 52.48%, and lost to Webber at a very small disadvantage, but this doesn't matter to Hardaway, because Hardaway lost the small prize but won the big prize.

Hardaway's rookie season was the 1993-1994 season. This year happened to be Jordan's first retirement. It is no exaggeration to say that Jordan's departure this time was an extremely serious blow to the NBA and the economy across the United States. The NBA's net income this year fell by nearly 40%. Even the stocks were like green light on their heads, and they were yelling. Magic Johnson gave up his dignity and knelt down on the TV show, crying and begging Jordan to make a comeback, but Jordan was still unmoved. In order to weaken the influence of Jordan's retirement, David Stern launched the concept of "Jordan's successor" for the first time, intending to strongly promote the league's outside star to create the second Jordan. The first player who bears the title of "Jordan's successor" is Penny Hardaway. At that time, Hardaway was simply the chosen son of "Jordan's successor". He has strong abilities, excellent basketball skills, and is kind to others. He has no trouble off the court.

Therefore, in the second half of Hardaway's rookie season, the NBA began to package and promote Hardaway in a large number of ways, not only in the field of basketball, but also arranged for Hardaway to make movies and cross-border games. All kinds of actions showed that David Stern attempted to replace Jordan with Hardaway and become the new leader of the NBA. Under the bombing of the NBA, the children who were sitting in front of the TV at that time showed that Pennsylvania was their idols, such as McGrady, Kobe, childhood LeBron James, Cameron Anthony, etc.

It is worth mentioning that Kobe once asked for Hardaway's signature at a meeting that time but failed. This incident made Kobe remember all his life, until Kobe entered the NBA and became a teammate with O'Neal. Kobe was still asking O'Neal to ask Hardaway for his autograph.

So the question is, what is Jordan's attitude towards the concept of "Jordan's successor"?

scoffed.

It is natural that when a good media asked Jordan about his opinion on "Jordan's successor", Jordan said bluntly and slightly disdainfully - "Michael Jordan only one" (only one Jordan).

Soon, Penny Hardaway began his second season of his career. With more experience, Hardaway's performance also got better and better. He faced the Bucks in the 11th game of the season. When O'Neal was deeply troubled by fouls, Hardaway stood up and performed well. He scored his second triple-double in his career, with 35 points, 10 rebounds and 12 assists, leading the team to defeat the Bucks. Now the Cavaliers' new star Evan Mobley's father, Eric Mobley, sat off the court and witnessed the whole process.

Don't think that triple-double was as common as it is now. In that era, triple-double was still very valuable, but it was a waste of Westbrook... In the era when Hardaway played, if a player could play triple-double data, it would be the front page of the newspaper sports sector that day. His subsequent career would be repeatedly mentioned, that is, because triple-double is very valuable, with high exposure, and a great sensational effect, so some players such as Ricky Davis, Bob Sulla and others would have been tricky and would not even have shame. In the second year of the rookie, Hardaway's performance was two levels higher than the first year, averaging 21 points, 5 rebounds, 7 assists and 1.7 steals per game. Moreover, his data improvement was not by snatching O'Neal's shooting rights, but comprehensively improving his offensive efficiency. His shooting percentage increased by 4.6% compared with last season to 51.2%. The three-point shooting scores he practiced in the summer have also begun to show results, with a shooting percentage soaring by 8.3% to 35%. This three-point shooting percentage is not good now, but in that era, he can be regarded as an elite three-point shooter.

Offensive end, Hardaway scored 39 points and 38 points high scores, while he sent 19 and 18 assists back to back on the organization side, and he even scored 6 steals on the defensive end. He has solid skills, gorgeous and elegant style, outstanding strength, can attack and defense without any shortcomings. In addition, the league's unremitting publicity, it is no exaggeration to say that Penny Hardaway, who is only in the second grade, has become the idol of countless young men with dreams of basketball. He was selected as the All-Star starter in the season, and is also the guard with the highest votes in the league. At the end of the season, Penny Hardaway beat a group of good players and was directly selected into the best team.

And his so-called lifelong enemy Chris Weber, let alone the best team, didn't even get into the All-Star. The gap between the two was reversed in the second season of his career and was completely thrown away.

But none of these are the most important.

With Michael Jordan's words "I 'm back.", the God of Basketball officially returned to the arena in the second half of Hardaway's second season. The God of Basketball's stand-in, Penny Hardaway, the "Jordan heir", was in the showdown of Jordan, and what did Hardaway do? Jordan's attitude towards Hardaway changed from contempt and disdain to affirming and admiring, and personally recognized Hardaway's identity as "Jordan heir"?

Due to space limitations, the content of this chapter will be discussed in the next chapter. Fireworks will continue to output high-quality original content to everyone at 8 o'clock every morning. I feel that Fireworks is well written, and I hope to get a small like to encourage you. The recognition of the top brother on the list is the driving force for Fireworks Xiaojun to update every day! Fireworks, I’m here to thank you for your brothers on the list!