The Basketball Hall of Fame will announce its 2023 class this weekend in Houston, part of the festivities at what is certainly the least likely Final Four in the sport’s history. Among the finalists for induction, Dirk Nowitzki and Dwyane Wade are first-ballot locks. And if Tony Parker and Pau Gasol don’t get in this year, they will be Hall of Famers soon.
I’ve got a question for you. On their best days as basketball players — or best months, or best season — were Parker and Gasol better than Anfernee Hardaway? Any living person who saw the three players in their primes would answer this question with a resounding … no. Yet Parker and Gasol will stroll into the Hall of Fame, while Hardaway has yet to even be named a finalist. It’s a glaring omission for basketball’s shrine to greatness, for Penny Hardaway should be a Hall of Famer.
Here we are, more than 15 years since the pride of Treadwell High School played his last NBA game (December 3, 2007) and Hardaway cannot be found among the greatest to play the sport he commanded for an all-too-brief professional career. And that’s the catch for Hardaway: However great he may have been, we’re tortured by the question of what he could have been, perhaps what he should have been with stronger knees. (Note: Hardaway played in more NBA games than Pete Maravich, and the Pistol was inducted without pause.)
There’s actually an advantage Hardaway holds as a former basketball great. His sport’s Hall of Fame has a significantly lower standard for induction than baseball’s Hall, and even lower than pro football’s. Unless your name is Sandy Koufax, a career abbreviated by injury eliminates you from consideration for Cooperstown. You have to have played ten seasons just to reach baseball’s ballot, and most inductees enjoyed careers of at least 15 years. As for football, Kurt Warner and Terrell Davis have been inducted, joining Gale Sayers among gridiron greats who starred brightly enough during brief careers to earn enshrinement.
Then there’s the hoop Hall. Here’s a look at four recent inductees to factor into the equation of Penny Hardaway’s qualifications:
• Maurice Cheeks (inducted in 2018) — Four-time All-Star. Never named to an All-NBA team. Played a supporting role (to Julius Erving and Moses Malone) on one of the greatest teams in NBA history, the 1982-83 Philadelphia 76ers. Played 15 years in the NBA.
• Sarunas Marciulionis (2014) — The face of Lithuanian basketball (particularly at the 1992 Olympics). Played seven seasons in the NBA. Never an All-Star.
• Jamaal Wilkes (2012) —Three-time All-Star. 1974-75 NBA Rookie of the Year. Played supporting role (to Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) for three L.A. Laker championship teams. Never named to an All-NBA team.
• Satch Sanders (2011) — Played supporting role (to Bill Russell and John Havlicek) for eight Boston Celtic championship teams. Never an All-Star and never named to an All-NBA team. Never averaged more than 12.6 points in a season.
Sorry, but these four players don’t so much as approximate the star power of Penny Hardaway in his professional prime. Let’s consider 50 games a “full” season for an NBA player. Penny played nine such seasons, so it’s not as though he went down after five or six no-look passes and a reverse dunk. He was named All-NBA three times, and twice first-team (after the 1994-95 and 1995-96 seasons). Consider his company on the 1996 All-NBA team: Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Karl Malone, and David Robinson (all members of the 1992 Olympic Dream Team). Hardaway was a four-time All-Star and averaged more than 20 points per game three times.
Let’s forget the stats and accolades, though. Basketball doesn’t have a significant counting number — 3,000 hits or 10,000 rushing yards — that introduces a player into discussions about Hall of Fame status. In nearly every case, it’s an eye test. Did the player do things on a basketball court we don’t see many (if any) others do? This is where Penny Hardaway’s creative, artistic case becomes lock-down secure. Beyond Michael Jordan or Magic Johnson, who can fill — to this day — a two-minute highlight reel like Hardaway? (Hardaway is on my Rushmore of basketball passers, along with Maravich, Magic, and Jason Kidd. He saw the court differently from others.)
Hardaway was the national high school player of the year (according to Parade magazine) in 1990. He was named first-team All-America as a junior at Memphis State in 1993. And he remains an unforgettable performer at basketball’s highest level, an Olympic gold medalist and a member of the only team to beat Jordan’s Chicago Bulls in the playoffs between 1991 and 1998 (the 1995 Orlando Magic). Get this: Every member of the 1996 U.S. Olympic team is a member of the Hall of Fame . . . except Penny Hardaway.
In 2018, SLAM magazine published an issue ranking the 100 greatest players of all time, and Hardaway checks in at 92. None of the Hall of Famers mentioned above made the cut. I’m convinced the Naismith selection committee will someday get this right. But make no mistake: the Basketball Hall of Fame is incomplete without Penny Hardaway.
