Prior to injuries derailing a once-promising career, Penny Hardaway was the toast of Florida basketball. A brand more than anything else, those of us on the wrong side of an age we don’t want to admit remember Hardaway’s Nike commercials with Lil’ Penny like they were yesterday.
That’s Chris Rock’s voice. The more you know, right?
Well the Orlando Magic are now looking to turn the clock back to the 1990s. No, we’re not talking about Will Smith’s Miami beat. Instead, the downtrodden franchise is out there bringing back Lil’ Penny as a good luck charm for Tuesday night’s NBA Draft Lottery.
“I’ll keep that very, very, very close. We don’t want anybody running off with that, so I’ll have that in my possession the entire evening,” Magic co-founder Pat Williams told the Orlando Sentinel. “It’s our version of a lucky penny. We’ve tried everything in the past: lucky coins, four-leaf clovers, rabbit’s feet, Lucky Charms cereal. We’ve taken everything up there.”
Okay, now that’s awesome. We really need Orlando to actually win the lottery so Chris Rock can go up there and celebrate. Because, why the heck not?
The Magic are coming off a 2017-18 season that saw them put up a 25-57 record. They have the fifth-best odds to win the lottery.