This past June, rumors swirled that Memphis’s head men’s basketball coach, Penny Hardaway, was in serious consideration for the head coaching position with the Orlando Magic.
But to the relief of Tigers’ fans and his entire hometown, Penny announced he was staying at home.
“Just like I had dreams coming out of college to make it to the NBA and I achieved those goals, it was a huge goal and huge dream, it happened for me, one day in the future I would love to coach in the NBA. And wouldn’t it be great if it were the Orlando Magic? But today isn’t that day,” said Penny in his Instagram post. “Today I’m here with my players, with the fans, with the city, working hard as I can to try to bring us a national championship. That’s what I set out to do; that’s what I want to do.”
Hardaway was drafted by the Golden State Warriors in 1993 but traded to the Magic, along with three first-round draft picks (1996, 1998, 2000), for Chris Webber. Penny played with Orlando for six years and was a 4x All-Star there before moving to Phoenix.
Memphis, his Alma mater, hired Penny as their head coach in 2018. Over his three years at the helm, the team has gone 63-32 and has never had a losing season.
In December of 2020, Penny signed a five-year, $12.25 million extension which keeps him with the Tigers through April 15th, 2026.
He also announced that he hired Hall of Fame coach Larry Brown to the staff as an assistant coach.
“It’s a win-win situation for us because he’s a wealth of knowledge who understands the game,” said Penny of Brown. “When I played for him, he was a coach that I really respected because the way he handled the team, the way he loved the players and the knowledge that he has. I’ve always wanted to be around greatness because iron sharpens iron.”
This weekend, his iron-infused program appeared poised to be bolstered even further.
According to Marc Stein, former NBA veteran Rasheed Wallace is a serious coaching candidate for Penny’s Tigers.
“Sources say Rasheed Wallace has emerged as a prime candidate to join Penny Hardaway’s Memphis staff as an assistant coach,” tweeted Stein.
Wallace was a dominant force for the North Carolina Tar Heels. Drafted by the Washington Bullets with the fourth pick in the 1995 NBA Draft, Wallace played for teams such as the Portland Trailblazers and Detroit Pistons. He was a 4x All-Star and won the 2004 NBA Championship with Detroit.
He was an assistant with the Pistons in the 2013-2014 season but wasn’t rehired. In 2019, Wallace was the head coach of the boy’s varsity team at Charles E. Jordan High School in Durham, North Carolina.
We’ll soon see if Wallace will be telling Tigers’ prospects that “ball don’t lie!”
