Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris Daddy Cool
man, penny had the sickest sneakers.
but glossing over his stats his peak was just way too short and actually wasn't as good as i remembered.
You're definitely going to have to explain this statement. Unless you remembered him being better than Jordan, it just doesn't make sense to me. 21.7/7.1/4.3/2.0 with 60+% TS and very good defense is an insane peak.
To give you some examples:
Grant Hill played 13 seasons including 6 before his major injury(and he appeared to be very healthy in 04-05 before unfortunately getting hurt yet again). Only once did he put up more points. Only once did he ever put up more assists. He put up more rebounds in most of his years. He never close in steals. He never came close in efficiency.
Scottie Pippen played 17 seasons. Only once did he put up more points. He never put up more assists. He put up more rebounds most years. He put up more steals in 5 out of his 17 years(keep in mind many considered Scottie the premire wing defender of his time). He never came remotely close to Hardaway's efficiency.
Clyde Drexler played 15 seasons. In only 5 of them did he put up more points. He once put up more assists. He usually put up more rebounds. He put up more steals 5 times. He never came remotely close to the efficiency numbers.
I could go on and on. And keep in mind I'm cherry picking the best years of these players- they didn't put up all these stats in the same year. Hardaway did it all. And the most impressive thing by far was his efficiency.
If he wanted to be, Hardaway could've been a 30 point per game guy imo. One of the most impressive performances ever imo was something I hinted at in my draft pick analysis- his series in 1997 against the Miami Heat. The Heat were the best defensive team in the league regarding points per 100 possessions. Not only that but they played at one of the slowest paces in the league, so it was tough to put up huge numbers against them.
The Heat were a 61 win team and the Magic had barely snuck into the playoffs. The Heat went up 2-0 winning the first two games by a combined 52 points. Then Hardaway took over....
In Game 3 he scored 42 of his team's 88 points. He was 16/30 from the floor and 9/10 from the foul line. The other 4 starters were a combined 3/16 from the floor and didn't get to the foul line once. Hardaway added 8 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 steals as well. Oh....and despite being literally the only offensive option on the floor and the primary ball handler, he only had one turnover all game.
In Game 4 he scored 41 of his team's 99 points. He went 12/23 from the floor including 4/8 from 3 and 13/16 from the line. He added 7 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 steals, and 3 blocks as well! Oh yea....and one lonely turnover. Keep in mind this is all against the best defensive team in the league.
In Game 5 he "only" put up 33/10/6/1/2(and 2 turnovers) and his team fell short to the heavily favored Heat.
I don't want to break the rules so I won't list the Magic roster that year, but lets just say that Hardaway really didn't have much help at all.
Now I fully realize that this was a 3 game sample size and doesn't mean a ton overall. However, you don't put up games like those if you're not a special, special player imo.