Anfernee "Penny" Hardaway is a 6' 7" professional basketball player in the NBA playing at small forward/shooting guard. He adopted the nickname "Penny" from his grandmother who used to call him "pretty"; but because of her accent, it sounded like she was saying "Penny" and hence his friends began to call him by that name.
He played in the NBA All-Star Game during his first three years in the league and was named to the All-NBA First Team in 1995 and 1996, as well as the All-NBA Third Team in 1997. At about the same time, a popular advertising campaign by Nike featuring Hardaway, making him a household name, and it appeared that he would be one of the top and most visible players in the league for years to come.
A devastating left knee injury, however, incurred early in the 1997-1998 NBA season required surgery and forced him to miss the rest of that season. Afterwards, he was traded to the Phoenix Suns for Danny Manning, Pat Garrity and two future first round draft picks. Since then, Hardaway has had continued problems with his left knee, most notably missing most of the 2000-2001 season due to a long recuperation following further surgery on that knee.
Today, Hardaway is known for his high basketball IQ and all around versatility. Growing up my favorite player was Penny Hardaway and to this day he remains one of my favorites. That's why it was such great news when I heard the Phoenix Suns were coming to town for a pre season basketball game versus the Houston Rockets.
Professional sports teams come to our fine state once every full moon, which is so great given the fact we lack a pro sports team. This time around the NBA teams the Houston Rockets and the Phoenix Suns were scheduled to play a preseason game at a nearby venue. Unfortunately Sterling was busy, so I was going to this event alone. If nothing else, hopefully I'd at least come away with Penny's autograph, crosses fingers.
After school I headed over to the venue and was a little worried because I had left a little later then planned. When I arrived on the scene, there were three people already standing along the fence of the player's exit tunnel. I didn't know if they were security/fans until I noticed some Sharpie's and basketball cards in their hands. They seemed like nice guys and were great to have around because they owned a sports memorabilia shop in town and knew every player.
The Rockets/Suns were two teams that I wasn't too familiar with (except for Penny) so I was so happy to have some die-hard fans with me. They told me some bad news, however, and said Penny Hardaway and the Phoenix Suns had just left. On a bright note they said Penny was really nice and that the bus driver told them where they were staying. I now knew where to go if I wished to pursue Penny's autograph, but now I was focused on meeting some of the players from the Houston Rockets.
After getting those autographs (read the Steve Francis story to find out more) I now wanted to try for Penny Hardaway. Because of the generousity of the bus driver I knew where they were staying and headed there. I arrived at the hotel and was in such a hurry exiting the car that I dropped all of my index cards in a puddle of mud, which pissed me off. I had nothing to get signed now, so I had no choice but to drive to Walgreens to get some index cards. I eventually got back to the hotel and waited on a bench outside of the entrance. There was nothing going on and I was starting to wonder if they were actually at this hotel.
It was very shady on this side of the hotel and I was freezing, so I walked to the side of it to warm up a bit. When I returned my heart stopped for moment when I saw that a bus was now parked in front of the entrance. I hoped that the players didn't just get off/on and luckily it just pulled up. I sat on the bench and waited, then a guy that I saw from the venue earlier came out of nowhere and sat by me. He also missed getting Penny's autograph and is a big Phoenix Suns fan. He brought his Penny shoes to get signed as well as some Phoenix Suns merchandise. Since he was such a big fan he was able to recognize almost every player when they came out, which resulted in me getting many autographs.
As we were collecting a car pulled up to us and the people had insane clown posse makeup on and asked me if this was the insane clown posse's bus (which we informed them it wasn't). After they left, the security guard from the Phoenix suns asked me what's the deal with their face makeup. He told me that he was in our state three months ago and saw people around here with that kind of makeup and didn't know if it was a tradition in our state? I laughed and told him that it was merely from a band that comes here a lot.
All of the sudden the doors closed on the bus and it took off! Many players were already on the bus, but we knew Penny wasn't one of them. We asked the security guard and he whispered to us that Penny and some of the other big names would be out at 5:30pm. So my friend and I (which he became after talking for so many hours) waited. The meter where I parked my car was running down so we both took a chance and headed over there.
He was cool enough to drive me to my car and even paid my parking fee without just to be friendly. Finally the bus came back and we were on full alert. More players started coming out and we stopped them for autographs. Some of the players were: Shawn "The Matrix" Marion, Daniel Santiago, Charlie Bell, John Wallace, Tom Gugliotta, Jake Tsakalidis, Alton Ford, Joe Johnson, and more.
Then the hotel doors opened and it was none other than Penny freaking Hardaway! Without any hesitation we asked for an autograph and he immediately smiled and said he would be happy to. We asked him a couple of questions about the upcoming basketball year and he laughed when he saw the Penny shoes that the other guy brought to get signed. After signing for both of us, I asked him if he would take a picture with me. Penny was happy to do so and I was able to come away with a great photo-op. We said a few more things and then thanked him for stopping to sign. Then Penny jumped into the bus and we were so happy that we got to meet this very nice man.
I guess you could say we saved the best for last. The bus took off and the day of collecting autographs was over. As we were walking off I felt in my pockets and couldn't find my phone and freaked! I ran back to the hotel and still couldn't find it. The guy I was with called my number but we couldn't hear it anywhere, did Penny take it? Of course not, luckily it had just fallen out in his car -crisis averted. After that scare, I was finally able to let this cool autograph experience sink in. A very long day as you can tell from the long story I just wrote, jeez.
