Dwayne Wade is the next Penny hardaway

With the latest Dwayne Wade injury I am convinced now more than ever that Wade is heading into the direction of being the next Penny Hardaway. Sure, he has not been hurt for several seasons, however it is getting close. This is the second straight season Wade has ended his regular season campaign with a serious injury and the second straight season South Beach Florida fans are pondering if their star player is fragile. For example Wade has only played in 51 games out of the entire 82 game season each of the last two years and in three of his five seasons in the league he has played in less than 62 games a season. The statistics are extremely simlar to Penny Hardaway. After Penny's first three seasons he broke down as well and that appears to be the route for Wade. What might supise you is that Wade has missed more games than Hardaway did in his initial four seasons in the N.B.A. Do I think Wade will sink to an eight point per a game performer? No !! But I believe that just like after Penny's fifth season, that Wade's best days will be gone. Wade known as the Flash has been anything but quick this season. In fact, in his last game he played in he looked as if he was running in quick sand. Raptors guard Anthony Parker looked two steps faster than Wade and had his way with Wade forcing him to commit five turnovers.

Also guys if we take a trip down memory lane, you will remember that during Penny's tenure with the Orlando Magic he had Shaquille O'Neal. The Magic made it to the NBA Finals, and suddenly, Hardaway became a big-time star with his “Lil’ Penny” commercials. Well, Deja Vu came all over again! Shaq came to the Heat and Wade's career skyrocketed. While many have stated that Wade carried Shaq to the promise land, let's not get too crazy here! It was Shaq's dominance in the middle that got the Heat over the hump against the favored Pistons in the Eastern Conference Finals and if you don't believe me look at Ben Wallace and Rasheed Wallace comments about what was the difference in that series. Without the Big Aristotle's dominating presence in the middle, Wade would have never had the success he had. He capitalized, and with it came t mobile sidekick commercials. Some people may say how could I compare the two because Wade has a ring, but lets remember Wade went against a soft Maverick team and had a veteran Shaq, whereas Penny faced a defending champion Houston Rockets team with Clyde Drexler and Hakeem Olajuwon not too mention Michael Jordan the year after that. Do you think Wade would have beat the Rockets? Wade is good enough to average 20 points the rest of his career, however like Hardaway Wade has a fragile body and his explosiveness is absent. Once Shaq left Hardaway and he was asked to carry a team by himself we saw his body break down and we are seeing the same thing now with Wade without Shaq.

Before I end, something else should be established. As observers of the game we believe that Tracy McGrady is injury prone, however it should be noted that if T mac's season ended today Wade would have still missed more games than McGrady over the past two seasons.