From his perch in Houston, where he is working out daily and dying to show everybody that he isn't washed up, cashed out and broken down, Penny Hardaway can't believe what he sees.
Shabby play. Poor fundamentals. Could it be that at 35 he has turned into a crotchety old-school crank?
Not likely. Hardaway loves basketball and the NBA. Now that he's healthy after six years of hobbling on a damaged knee, Hardaway wants one last chance to play the game. He can't get it, and it kills him.
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| Penny Hardaway's last NBA action was Dec. 6-9, 2005, during a West Coast road swing with the Knicks. (Getty Images) |
Hardaway is waiting for a team to decide it could use a veteran backup who can play three perimeter positions and who is healthy -- finally -- after microfracture surgery and the removal of a large bone spur.
He'll play for the veteran minimum.
He'll come off the bench.
He'll do anything, if only he can play.
"I have two or three more years in me at a level where I can help," he says. "I don't want to be a star, playing 42 minutes a game. I want to be a role player. A happy role player."
Hardaway hasn't been happy for a long time -- six years, to be exact. That's how long he has struggled with injuries. Orlando finally cut him loose last February, just a couple days after trading for him in what was a blatant salary-cap dump. Didn't matter much anyway, because Hardaway wasn't going to help the Magic. He was still in too much pain and unable to handle any full-time work. He couldn't even jump.
Hardaway went back to Houston and had yet another MRI of his knee. This time, doctors saw something different. After years of hearing that the pain was due solely to the microfracture surgery he had in 2000, he finally learned the real reason he couldn't run or jump.
"There was a huge bone spur on my knee," he says. "I said, 'Go in and take it out.' If I didn't come back, oh well."
Houston-based orthopedic surgeon Walter Lowe, chief physician for the NFL's Houston Texans, performed the procedure, which brought almost instant relief to Hardaway. After years of running in pain and looking more suited to an over-40 men's league than the big time, Hardaway was free. No more agony every time he loaded up to jump. No more gimpy gait.
