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I left, and I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t know if that was going to be enough to convince them to take me first, though. I left, and we started filming the movie Blue Chips, and Shaq and I just hit it off. Coach Pete Newell, God rest his soul, he was like, Shaq, this guy can help make you better, and he was talking about me! So really, I’m playing basketball for the movie, but I’m really auditioning to Shaq to be able to get to go to Orlando. Finally, he called the Orlando front office and said, Hey, you guys need to bring him back down and take aseriouslook at him.
To continue reading our exclusive interview with Penny Hardaway, where he touches on the reaction the 1/2 Cent got, his vorite sneaker in the "Penny Signature Pack" and more,
LOVE THE ROOKIES ! The lines are just too sick. Cant wait too see more CWs! Penny&SC&Nike dope event again in Las Vegas.
The thing i liked about Penny...He was so humble and played with so much heart. Watching him play against Jordan was exciting. He changed the way the Point Guard position was played.
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I was just grabbing and going for the most part, and I’d just get a box and grab my new shoe and go ball. It was good because they were sending me different shoes, and I started to know the difference between playing in one shoe all season versus continuing to play in different shoes for the whole year. I’ve always been a shoe freak, so I enjoyed wearing different shoes my rookie year.
The best thing about the movie was our director, William Friedkin. He allowed us to playrealbasketball, and nothing was scripted. Well, except for that last lob that I threw to Shaq for the game winner. [laughs] But everything else was real basketball, and they allowed me to show my skills and just play. When I went back to Orlando after I got drafted, we just started to talk about winning championships and building a dynasty. We wanted to be the Kareem and Magic of our era.
LOVE THE ROOKIES ! The lines are just too sick. Cant wait too see more CWs! Penny&SC&Nike dope event again in Las Vegas.
Penny Hardaway: It was just a weird thing overall. I was filming the movie Blue Chips after I got done with college, and people were saying I was going to be a lottery pick, but we didn’t know where. We all figured Chris Webber would be the number one pick. Of course, I had to go and do a tryout for Orlando before I started doing the movie. I went to Orlando, did the vertical leap test and all of the agility drills, and I did great. My athleticism was off the charts. The guy with the team doing the tests even said, Oh, you’regoodin this area. [laughs]
I kind of figured that I was going to go with Nike all along, but I had to give Converse the first presentation. They weren’t really talking how I wanted the discussion to go, and I just decided after that that I was going to go with Nike. I just knew in the long run that it would be better.
NDP: What was it like just personally off the court, just getting used to all of a sudden being in the NBA?
Favorite teams of the SC staff ced off on Sunday, as the Orlando Magic visited the Sacramento Kings in a showdown between two teams in flux.
It was good because we had a great chemistry during the movie, and he was a big n of mine. We had played together before when we were in college at the Olympic Festival. I doInterview // Penny Hardaway : The Rookie Season Мозг аневризмыn’t know if you remember that, but it was in Minnesota, and they’d have all of the top college guys come in and play on teams. Shaq and I played together, and we playedwelltogether. He remembered that, and then playing alongside him in the movie was great, too.
On draft day, one of the reporters from the Orlando area told me that if Golden State takes me third that I was going to get traded to Orlando for Chris Webber. I just remember saying, Man, I hope so. Then, I got picked third, the trade happened, and that was it.
I def agree. I was blessed enough to meet him at the nike lv sole collector event and he was extremely humble and spoke to everybody. He was asking people for advise on how to make his shoe better and really taking into consideration.
For more on the design of the Zoom Rookie, check out
[quote=Kick_Swag][quote=kalistunta]The thing i liked about Penny...He was so humble and played with so much heart. Watching him play against Jordan was exciting. He changed the way the Point Guard position was played.[/quote]I def agree. I was blessed enough to meet him at the nike lv sole collector event and he was extremely humble and spoke to everybody. He was asking people fМозг аневризмыor advise on how to make his shoe better and really taking into consideration. [/quote]thats cool as hell, I always liked him and always liked his shoes, he just seemed like a good dude you could tell and I agree him playing with heart every game, thats how it should be. Sucks how his career went down hill the way it did. Hope the best for everything else he does
It was drastically different, because you go from staying in a dorm to staying in a mansion. [laughs] Which is a blessing. So, life changes overnight. I just kind of found myself just trying to have as much fun as possible and not make it business. I wanted to do well, but I had a lot of my friends come down and visit a lot, and I wanted to have their support. I remember having a lot of people come down, and all of my friends and old teammates would visit and come down from college and high school to visit and keep me in a comfort zone.
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Interview // Penny Hardaway : The Rookie Season Мозг аневризмы,After meeting with NSW Design Lead Marc Dolce to brainstorm colorways and themes, Hardaway was thrilled to talk all about the newest addition to his "1 Cent" line, inspired by two of the most memorable sneakers he wore before his own signature series got rolling, the original Air Go LWP and Flight One. Check out an excerpt of our conversation with Penny ahead to hear all about the road to his rookie season in Orlando and his initial thoughts on the new Zoom Rookie.
thats cool as hell, I always liked him and always liked his shoes, he just seemed like a good dude you could tell and I agree him playing with heart every game, thats how it should be. Sucks how his career went down hill the way it did. Hope the best for everything else he does
With Nike Sportswear planning to launch the Zoom Rookie LWP this past ll to celebrate the roots of the brand’s relationship with Penny Hardaway, it was only fitting that we spoke with the man himself just after he saw the final shoe for the very first time this past March.
NDP: And what was it like filming the movie with Shaq and then going and reconnecting in Orlando after the draft?
I thought it was awesome. They’ve always done a great job with my shoes, and that’s a blessing. The shoes that Marc Dolce combined, those were all great shoes when I wore them. Of course, I liked the LWPs better than I did the Flight One. It was a sleeker look, and the Flight was a wider fit. They were still sweet, though. [laughs] Everyone doesn’t get shoes like this. They might get their own shoe, but they don’t all have shoes that everyone really likes and that lookreallygood like these.
NDP: When you were coming out of college, I remember you saying that Converse wanted to sign you before you decided to go with Nike.
The rookies could have been so much better. The zoom bag is pitiful and no forefoot cushioning? Thats weak for a $200 shoe.
NDP: When you started to wear some of those shoes during your rookie season, like the LWP and the Flight One, can you just talk about what it was like and which ones you liked best?
The biggest turnaround for me was when we traded Scott Skiles to Washington. I became the point guard, and all of a sudden, my whole mentality changed. It was like, This is my team now, and now I could do whatever I wanted to do. I just got more comfortable as the season went on.
Nick DePaula: Let’s take it back to your rookie year. What do you remember right before the draft, and what were your expectations for where you were going to get drafted?
It was different because the LWP was so much lighter than the rest. The thing that’s so amazing about the Flight One: MJ wore those! I was shocked. I came out for the game, and the first thing I noticed was he didn’t have Jordans on. He had my shoe on! I was like, Wow!
Converse was our shoe in college. They were on me. My last year, they were always like, So, what are you gonna do if you go to the NBA? I went to visit them first, because they were our sponsor, but the crazy thing about it was we wore Converse, but my entire closet in the dorm was all Nike. I would only wear Nike and nothing else.
NDP: With the LWP and Flight One being incorporated into the new Zoom Rookie, what’d you think when you first saw it?
NDP: Did you talk to Chris about it at that point?
No, we really didn’t talk; we just exchanged hats. [laughs] You know, Let me get that! [laughs] But my rookie year was really different because I wasn’t the point guard. Scott Skiles was there for the majority of the season, and fitting in with him and trying to understand the game and have as much fun as I could was my goal. I just remember playing against Reggie and Mitch Richmond and all of those guys every night, and it was hard in the ’90s on a nightly basis. All I was trying to do was just show that I belonged on a nightly basis.
They’ve done another great job with the Rookie. It fits right into the mold of everything else, and all of the shoes that have gone into it are great looking shoes. I can’t say that there’s a bad looking shoe in my line. Some people, you know, they might have a shoe where you might say, Man, I don’t know what they were thinking when they madethatone. [laughs] All of my shoes are great, though.
The rookies could have been so much better. The zoom bag is pitiful and no forefoot cushioning? Thats weak for a $200 shoe.
The second time I went back to Orlando, they had a lot of the Magic players there. Dennis Scott and Anthony Bowie were there, and Bowie was known as a defender and was the guy that would guard Michael and all of the top two guards in the League. They put him on me and must’ve said, Harass him, do everything you can to him, and let’s see how he’s going to respond to a little hard, physical play. I knew that was my chance to show them that I could play, and I just went all out and had a great day against them. I think that’s what changed their mind.
