Even Nike and Michael Jordan wouldn’t have predicted that in 2024, the Jordan brand sales would cross $7 billion. That’s how the impact has been ever since the contract was official 4 decades ago. But even His Airness faced issues with wearing the brand, likely due to his haste. It was a Magic superstar who turned out to be helpful unintentionally.

Appearing on the Knuckleheads podcast, Anfernee ‘Penny’ Hardaway, recalled the instance MJ had worn a shoe outside of Jordans for the first time. “I think when I wore MJ shoes, it was you know before he came back. And then when he came back they didn’t have a Air Jordan that was available. Because he didn’t make one,” Hardaway spoke to the co-hosts and former NBA stars Quentin Richardson and Darius Miles.

When Michael Jordan returned to the league after a brief stint playing baseball in 1995, Nike and Tinker Hatfield designed a ‘shiny shoe’ with patent leather as per the Bulls legend’s wishes. They were only samples during the season, with the brand and the designer warning him to not wear them just yet. However, MJ went ahead regardless, eventually triggering a $5000 fine from the league for not following the Bulls’ colorway policy.

Nike then considered the production of a pair in a black/white/concord colorway. This fell when the Bulls had to face the Orlando Magic in the Easter Conference Semis, and Jordan, without a shoe for game 3, had to turn to Penny who had released a shoe just two weeks before MJ returned to basketball. It was an amusing sight for the 4x All-Star.

“He called me kid, ‘Give me kids shoes’ like that’s what he called me, ‘kid, I’m gonna get these shoes right’. So he rocked them joints, and I was still sitting out there going ‘this man got my shoes on,‘” he recalled on the podcast. “I thought that was crazy cuz he’s never won another shoe outside of a Jordan.” 

Hardaway had signed the first contract with Nike in 1993, after rejecting a $7 million offer from Converse. Before his Nike Air Penny 1 hit the market, he was rocking Air Jordan 9 himself. He respected the Bulls icon well, but that doesn’t stop him from believing he was better than the 6x champion in certain ways.

Despite Nike loyalty, Penny Hardaway dissed Michael Jordan

The career of the 53-year-old is interesting. If there were no injury concerns, he could have displayed even better performances. Even Shaquille O’Neal called him Kobe before Kobe. Another scenario is if Shaq had stayed with Magic, they could have won another ring. After all, they defeated MJ-led Bulls once, but lost in the NBA finals. Regardless, he was considered better than MJ by Trevor Ariza during the period and Hardaway is not denying it all.

“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 (Trevor Ariza) like, ‘Man, he’s better than MJ from a skill set point of view,'” Hardaway spoke to Tony Allen and Zach Randolph on another podcast.

The Magic icon also clarified that he believes MJ to be the GOAT, but when it came to his game, Hardaway wasn’t bowing down. Outside the court, his respect was clear from his reaction to MJ adorning his shoes.