"Nobody ever posted MJ like that" - Penny Hardaway gets candid on Michael Jordan asking Scottie Pippen to guard him

Michael Jordan and Penny Hardaway had numerous battles during their basketball heydays when the Chicago Bulls and the Orlando Magic were going against each other in the playoffs in one of the most heated Eastern Conference rivalries ever. With their matchups on the court, the two legends earned each other’s respect for leading their teams.

Talking to "The Pivot Podcast" on Tuesday, Hardaway looked back at his battle against Jordan. The Magic guard got candid on when Jordan switched off of him and put his teammate Scottie Pippen to guard him, saying it was then when he realized that he had earned the respect of the Bulls’ great.

“The ultimate respect was when (Jordan) got off me and put Scottie (Pippen) on me. That, to me, was the ultimate respect because Mike is a defensive first team. He is that guy,” Hardaway said. [39:32]

According to Hardaway, it happened when Hardaway took Jordan to the post, where the Magic guard was at his best.

“I took him to the post. Nobody has ever posted MJ like that...and that was not to say that he couldn’t guard me in the post, but that’s where I’m going with my business like I’m not taking you to the perimeter, we are going right here,” he said.

“The ultimate respect was when Scottie started guarding me after that. I was like ‘okay, I got his respect now.’”

Jordan and the Bulls tasted a shocking upset against the Hardaway-led Magic in 1995, losing to the young Orlando squad backstopped by Shaquille O’Neal, Horace Grant and Nick Anderson in the second round of the playoffs.

Magic went on to the 1995 Finals but lost to the Houston Rockets. Meanwhile, the Bulls bounced back in 1996, winning 72 games and the title before completing another three-peat in the next two seasons.

Jordan won six titles in his career, while Hardaway dealt with numerous injuries after the 1995 run before retiring in 2003. Hardaway did not win an NBA championship.

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Penny Hardaway believes he has a better skillset than Michael Jordan

As one of Michael Jordan’s biggest rivals in his career, Penny Hardaway has long been compared to him. Decades later, Hardaway believed he has better skillset than Jordan.

Talking to the "Out the Mud" podcast in 2024, Hardaway explained why he has better skills than Jordan but admitted that the Bulls legend is the Greatest of All Time.

"I'll say this because everybody can say, 'You know, MJ is the GOAT, right?' But when you got guys that understand what they like in somebody's game—playmaking, passing, shooting—my skill set was higher than MJ's, so that's probably what he's like, 'Man, he's better than MJ from a skill set point of view,'” Penny Hardaway said.

Jordan has long been considered as the greatest player ever, after winning six titles and being undefeated in the NBA Finals.

While Jordan continued to be a businessman after retirement, Penny Hardaway remained in basketball, coaching the Memphis Tigers in the AAC.