Preface.
Jordan took the Bulls to become the top NBA in the 90s, two triple championships are extremely dazzling, in an era of shining stars, Jordan's star overshadowed the vast majority of stars, after he reached the end of his career, the league also looked for a new "face star", and therefore there are a lot of "Jordan ** people", and Jordan said in an interview that he has a candidate in mind, that is, "penny" Hardaway.
Over the course of his career, Jordan and "Penny" Hardaway have played against each other a total of 21 times, and what are their performances and stats?Let's take a look!
The first meeting made Jordan suffer defeat
In the second season of entering the NBA, "Penny" Hardaway was selected for the NBA All-Star team for a while, and was selected as an All-Star, ranking first among all guards in terms of votes.
Hardaway played smartly and elegantly in the game, his footwork and dribbling skills were particularly good, his back skills were outstanding among the point guards, and his court vision and passing skills were extremely skilled, and in the 1994-95 season, Hardaway, as a second-year NBA player, was able to average 20 per game9 points 44 rebounds 72 assists 1With 7 steals, he helped the Magic become one of the most flashy teams in the league on offense, while also averaging a league-high 110 per game9 points, 1151 also leads the league in offensive efficiency.
And it was in the 1994-95 season that Hardaway had the opportunity to compete with Jordan, in the face of this senior, Hardaway was not frightened, and in the latter part of the regular season, a game between the Magic and the Bulls, Jordan and the young man who was called "Jordan ** man" by the fans had a head-to-head conversation.
Hardaway got 22 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists and 1 block, 7 of 15 shots, and helped the team limit Jordan to 7 of 23 shots, however, Jordan still used his strong breakthrough ability to fight a lot of free throw opportunities, and finally scored 21 points in the game, grabbed 4 rebounds and sent 8 assists, and scored 5 steals and 2 blocks, but it became an empty cut, and Hardaway sent him a loss against Jordan for the first time in his career.
And then there is the main event, Jordan's comeback can lead the team to win the championship, because the magic of Hardaway in the backcourt is in vain.
It allowed Jordan to suffer the only round of playoff losses since his first comeback
In the 1995 playoffs, the Magic went out as the leader of the East in the regular season, and the Celtics did not spend much effort in the first round.
On the Bulls' side, Jordan averaged 32 per gameThe 3-point lead Bulls to the Hornets led by Mourning and Larry Johnson have solved their opponents in four games, and will face the Magic in the second round, which is a head-to-head confrontation between veteran stars and rising stars.
In the series with the Magic, Jordan put on other people's sneakers for the first time after owning his own signature shoes, wearing the Air Flight One of which Hardaway is the main spokesperson, which can also be said to express his optimism about Hardaway, and Hardaway may have thought, "That's Jordan, he plays in my endorsement shoes!"."But in the game I didn't have any energy at all.
In the first game of the series, Hardaway scored 16 points, 4 rebounds, 6 assists, 5 steals and 1 block, and at the same time helped the Magic prevent Jordan from scoring only 19 points in the game, and there were 8 turnovers, and the Magic won 94-91 against the Bulls to win the opener. After that, Jordan quickly played an unstoppable momentum in the game, with 38 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 4 steals and 4 blocks in G2 and G3 and 40 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists respectively.
However, after the first three games of the series, the Bulls still fell into a 1-2 deficit in the overall score, Hardaway's tandem made the Magic's offense often play smoothly, Jordan's excellent G2 and G3, Hardaway also had 20 points, 2 rebounds, 7 assists, 1 steal and 1 block, 19 points, 6 rebounds and 8 assists respectively.
G4, Jordan got 26 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists and 4 steals for the Bulls to tie the series to a 2-2 draw, G5 will be the "Battle of King Mountain", Jordan's individual scoring performance is still eye-catching, Hardaway is using assists to revitalize the whole team, Jordan scored a team-high 39 points, Hardaway scored 19 points and sent 11 assists, Magic 4 people scored double-doubles, and finally defeated the Bulls 103-95 to win G5.
G6 went to Chicago, the Magic was not soft, ended the series at the Bulls' home court, Hardaway got 21 points, 2 rebounds, 7 assists, 2 steals and 1 block to fill the data column, Jordan blasted 24 points, 9 rebounds, 7 assists, 4 steals and 4 blocks The data failed to stop the momentum of the Magic, the Bulls lost and were eliminated by the Magic with a total score of 2-4, and the loss of this series also became the only round of the series that Jordan lost after his comeback in 1995.
This young man can play back and forth with Jordan
After helping the Magic defeat Jordan's Bulls in 1995, Hardaway's Magic went all the way to the Finals, which was the first and only Finals experience in the history of the Magic, and then in the 1995-96 season, Hardaway's average per game came to 217 points 43 rebounds 7With 1 assist and 2 steals, he helped the Magic play the best regular season record in team history with 60 wins and 22 losses, and in the All-NBA selection, Hardaway and Jordan stood side by side in the guard position in a team.
In the 1995-96 regular season, he represented the Magic for the first time in the game against the Bulls led by Jordan, Hardaway slashed 36 points, 5 rebounds, 4 steals and 2 blocks to help the Magic defeat the Bulls 94-88, Jordan 23 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists and 2 steals still lost. Hardaway and Jordan played back and forth on behalf of the Magic and the Bulls in the game, but unfortunately, after 1996, Hardaway was entangled in injuries, and his competitiveness was greatly affected by injuries.
In the 1997-98 regular season, Hardaway only played 19 games due to injury, and only once faced Jordan in the game, which was also the highlight of his last career against Jordan, with 20 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists and 1 steal.
After that, Jordan returned to the Wizards three years after leaving the NBA, at this time Hardaway had gone to the Suns, almost no longer at the peak, although much younger than Jordan, but he was no longer able to play a comparable performance in the game, one of which was also bombarded by Jordan 41 points, Hardaway scored 10 points, and the Suns lost to the Wizards 102-112, which is really embarrassing.
In 21 career encounters, Hardaway led the team to win 7 times against Jordan's team, averaging 20 per game7 points 35 rebounds 47 assists 16 steals, Jordan is averaging 28 per game4 points 64 rebounds and 46 assists 23 steals, 1 block.