Former star Penny Hardaway recently revealed what caused the end of his NBA career. Since it has been several years since Hardaway retired, there must be a fair amount of fans who do not know or remember him. Hardaway began his career with the Orlando Magic and played for 14 seasons.
The second half of his career saw a serious decline in performance and Hardaway eventually retired after playing the 2007-2008 NBA season with the Miami Heat. During a podcast, Penny was interviewed and asked to share his thoughts on the cause for the end of his career. With that being said, let us take a closer look and find out more.
Penny Hardaway helped a young Shaquille O’Neal make it to the NBA Finals
Before getting into details regarding the struggles Hardaway dealt with in his career, it is important to mention that Penny was a solid NBA star and was already on the Orlando Magic when Shaquille O’Neal joined the team. Together, they established themselves as legitimate title contenders and even made it all the way to the NBA Finals in 1995 while eliminating Michael Jordan and the Bulls in the process.
After Shaq left the Magic to join the Lakers, Hardaway did the same and took his talents to the Phoenix Suns. He soon sustained a knee injury and went through microfracture surgery in order to get back into form. However, Hardaway recently revealed that this surgery was the ultimate decision that ended his NBA career.
Penny Hardaway calls his decision to have microfracture surgery on his knee “the worst decision I’ve ever made.” Today, the procedure is no longer practiced by doctors.
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“When I had the microfracture, I knew it was instantly the worst decision I had made in my life because I could just tell I was different. It was taking me so long after a game to get out of the car. I knew then that something wasn’t right. I was never the same after microfracture surgery.”
Penny Hardaway went on to explain that this surgery ensured that one leg was always weaker than the other and led to him dealing with other physical issues. Soon after that, it was announced that doctors would no longer utilize microfracture surgery. That indicates that this form of surgery was quite dangerous and came with serious side effects.
What is microfracture surgery?
Initially, microfracture surgery was considered to be quite common and used to deal with damaged knee cartilage that had undergone impact and needed some form of treatment in order to ensure the reduction of swelling and pain. The actual process involved drilling holes into the bones as it would let the swelling reduce and hasten healing.
However, it was soon revealed that microfracture surgery was not safe. It greatly increased the risk of developing further injuries due to the fact that the body would struggle to heal especially if the athlete gets back to playing physical sports. The chances of failure to maintain strength and conditioning were around 5% in the first year and went up to 22% within 5 years.
One can only imagine what Penny Hardaway went through for the remainder of his career after having undergone this surgery. Since he was one of the first-ever professional athletes to try microsurgery, he prevented other young athletes from making the same decision at a very heavy personal price.