Nike's First Choice To Play Lil Penny Wasn't Chris Rock

Nike Lil Penny Chris Rock

Lil Penny Alley Oct. 2016
Image via Complex Original

Lil Penny Alley Oral History of Lil Penny Oct. 2016

Lil Penny Alley Oct. 2016

When you think of Lil Penny, Chris Rock’s name comes to mind almost as fast as Penny Hardaway. But while Rock’s voice has become synonymous with the sneaker world’s most famous puppet, it almost never happened.

As it turns out, Rock wasn’t the first choice to voice the miniature alter ego of Hardaway. According to Stacy Wall, the former creative director at Wieden+Kennedy who was behind the campaign, it was Eddie Murphy who was tapped first for the part, but declined. “The voice in my head was sort of somewhere between Eddie Murphy’s voice in Coming to America and any athlete that had that ability to be prideful,” recalled Wall to Complex.

Martin Lawrence and Damon Wayans were also candidates for the spot. And although Hardaway was a big fan of Lawrence, he admits that “it would have been different if Martin would have done it. Because Chris Rock’s voice, and that attitude and how hyper he was, really made it work.”

Lil Penny Stacy Wall Oct. 2016

Rock’s work proved so successful that Lil Penny was almost turned into a movie by Danny DeVito’s company. “I remember getting on the phone with them and saying there’s probably a raft of buddy cop scripts in Hollywood that have never been made,” Wall Said. “Just pick the worst one and it will actually be genius because Lil Penny will be in it.”

The movie idea never ended up panning out, similar to the ad campaign that spawned the concept of Lil Penny. Wall revealed that the original concept was for Hardaway and Michael Jordan to play one-on-one as puppets. “I thought the commercial was interesting, but Nike thought it was creepy,” he said. “But the Penny puppet in particular had this sort of magic to it.”

For much more, you can read the entire oral history of Lil Penny over at Complex.