"I was trying to put fear in him": Penny Hardaway gets honest about Michael Jordan match up
4-time NBA All-Star Penny Hardaway joined Draymond Green and Baron Davis on an episode of the Draymond Green Show which will release on Thursday. In the trailer to the episode, the Orlando Magic guard spoke about what his mindset was when he first matched up against Michael Jordan in the NBA.
"I was trying to put fear in him guarding me because I knew what he was gonna try to do to me on the other end," Hardaway said. "I hit the half spin and saw him there, I just hop back and he didn't know I was going to do that but obviously I did,"(0:25)
Hardaway's first faceoff against Jordan in the NBA was in March 1995. Hardaway's Magic defeated Jordan's Chicago Bulls 106-99. He outscored the six-time NBA Champion with 22 points, five rebounds and six assists while Jordan has 21 points, four rebounds and eight dimes.
From that point on, however, Jordan turned the head-to-head record around and the six-time NBA Finals MVP finished with a 14-7 record against Hardaway. Their last matchup came in 2003 when Jordan was capping his career off with the Wizards while Hardaway was with the Suns.
Currently, Hardaway is the coach of the men's basketball program at University of Memphis. Memphis has a 9-2 record and is looking to pick up the pace with conference play coming up.
Penny Hardaway says he'd average 30 points in today's era
Draymond Green asked Hardaway during the interview about how many points he would average in the NBA today.
"Easy 30 in this era bro.," the two-time All-NBA First team player said. (0:17)
Hardaway averaged 15.2 points per game throughout his NBA career. In his best scoring campaign in the 1995-96 season, he averaged 21.7 points on 51.3% shooting.
On the coaching front, Hardaway's Memphis Tigers survived a slow start to defeat the Virginia Cavaliers 64-62 on Wednesday. Sophomore guard PJ Haggerty scored 21 of his 27 points in the second half to propel the team to victory. Hardaway's next coaching assignment is against Mississippi State on Saturday.