"Jason does not have to carry the full burden that he did last year," Suns coach Danny Ainge said. "Last year, Jason had to create the offense for himself and everybody else. Penny is a guy you can go to down the stretch. He creates double teams. They complement each other very well."

Kidd was on the phone once or twice a week to Hardaway, explaining how the two could form one of the NBA's great backcourts.

"Jason, he did a great job," Hardaway said. "Like they said, he was the assistant general manager. He called me all the time. When he was in Puerto Rico (with the U.S. team), he was calling. He never pressured me to make a decision, but he just said he'd love to have me and he'd love to play with me."

Last season, it often seemed the always energized Kidd was playing the game at one pace, while the rest of the Suns were at another. Those around him couldn't keep up with a player Hardaway calls "by far the best point guard in the NBA."

Jason Kidd, always drawing tough defense, will be happy to share the backcourt with Penny Hardaway.(AP)

Hardaway says he can keep up.

"All I have to do is run, he's going to find me," Hardaway said. "I know that."

With Hardaway standing 6-foot-7 and Kidd 6-4, the backcourt is one of the NBA's biggest, and that means big matchup problems for the opposition.

"When you look at his game and my game, they're really very similar," Kidd said. "It will be very difficult for other teams to match up with us. It will help me in a big way that he's 6-7, because now they have to put the two guard on him, and I have the opportunity to be guarded by the point guard."

And Kidd knows not many point guards can stop him one-on-one.

Ainge said he never thought for a second about any problems he might have dealing with Hardaway, despite the perception that he was trouble for his coaches in Orlando.

Instead, Ainge relishes the versatility that Hardaway will give the Suns next season.

"I'm talking about a guy who can dribble," Ainge said. "He can play point guard. He can play the two spot. He can play the three spot. He can shoot 3's. He can post up. He can pass. He can defend. He has the best all-around skills of any player."

The Suns were the only team willing to pay Hardaway the maximum seven-year, $86 million contract he wanted.

Team president and owner Jerry Colangelo has never been shy about spending money for big-name players, and the Suns were in dire need of an infusion of excitement after a lackluster season which ended with the team being eliminated in the first round of the playoffs for the fourth year in a row. The team wasn't even able to sell out its only home playoff game.

Colangelo gave his son, Bryan, the general manager, credit for mounting the effort that brought Hardaway to Phoenix.

The younger Colangelo was able to pull off the sign-and-trade deal with Orlando without giving up a whole lot -- Danny Manning, Pat Garrity and two first-round draft picks. The picks will come sometime between 2000 and 2006.

But, along with Colangelo's checkbook, it was the presence of Kidd that did as much as anything to lure Hardaway to the desert.

"To play with a guy like that is heaven," Hardaway said, ``and I can't wait until the season starts."

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