This morning I dropped my sister to her work, parked my car near my workplace and headed over to “The Av” (Jamaica Ave) I was looking for the Retro Air Max Penny B’s in Knicks colors..

I always wanted Pennys but they were always too expensive for me back in the 90s. So now here was my chance to own a pair. So I went to like 10 stores…. the knicks version were sold out everywhere…From Jimmy Jazz to VIM, to Dr. Jays… My only hope was the smaller ghettoer stores. As I walked from street to street I couldn’t help but notice that posters and flyers for 50 Cent’s new movie were everywhere! I was like woah there is no way you could not know about this stupid movie. From Busses to even the counter tops in the smallest stores.. Jamaica is his hometown though… Funny I always thought Jamaica was my hometown! I was literally born there…

Back to the story… I go into one of these clothing/sneaker/suit stores and I hear english which sounds almost biblical being played in the speakers.. as I listen to the words… I think that sounds like something that would be in the Quran, next thing I know I hear some hardcore recitation! It was the Qur’an! The store owner who had a very nice size store was blasting Qur’an with english translation… mashallah… now thats some serious dawah right there! Then I went to this other store which was very ghettoish although it was nicely designed.. it had super hood products… the store was covered in more 50 Cent posters… so I go in there… and I walk by a person who is sitting down reading… I go up to see the black and white version of the pennys which are overpriced at $99…. (while Jimmy Jazz had them for $69) So I ask the person if he has them in the knicks colors he says no…. and then all of a sudden something catches my eye….. when this person was sitting down he was reading a book… a rather large sized book…. I instinctively thought he is either reading the bible or the Qur’an… so I said… so what are you reading? And he says “the Qur’an”, and Im like “You’re Muslim?” (noticing all late that he is wearing a beard) he complies and we exchange salams… by this point I am looking at his Qur’an… mashallah his Qur’an was tagged up with dividers, marked up with added notes…you could tell the brother had extensively been going through this copy. Mashallah it made me happy (and jealous).. this brother wasn’t wasting his Ramadan… even though he was stuck at work. So then I try to go to the colliseum (which is a super ghetto mini mall) and its locked…. but theres a sneaker store on the corner.. the last one I was going to try… I asked the guy if he had them and he did and he had my size. He wanted $120 I told him $100 straight… (even that for 100 I was thinking ouch thats expensive!). He wasn’t budging… so I left and went to work. Then right before Asr I thought let me go back.. And this time I tell him I can 110 straight.. and he agrees.. and I am a proud owner of the coolest Retro Pennys out.

For those of you who were not fortunate enough of knowing who Penny Hardaway is Just look at this cover of Slam Magazine from Nov 1996: When Penny Herbed Jordan (#45) letting him know that he should have never come back by swiftly wrapping around a pass around Jordan into the hands of Horace Grant, Mike’s former teammate who dunks right over him. Penny led Shaq to his first finals that year.

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Filed under: Social Commentary