Hiring Hardaway was years in making
The Memphis men’s basketball team’s 2017-18 season had ended with a loss to Cincinnati in the American Athletic Conference tournament semifinals just hours earlier when university President M. David Rudd began making phone calls.
He had been preparing the executive committee of the school’s Board of Trustees for the possibility of a coaching change. Now, he was ready to go into action.
“It’s time to talk,” Rudd said, a source with direct knowledge of the conversation told USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee on the condition of anonymity.
As Saturday afternoon turned to evening, he called the three members of the executive committee individually and Calkins: Why Hardaway took less money to coach the Memphis program.
eventually talked to every Board of Trustees member once he decided to fire coach Tubby Smith and hire former Tigers star Penny Hardaway.
Speaking to more than one trustee member at a time would have violated the Tennessee Open Meetings Act.
But the message Rudd delivered on this night was expected, ever since he began to brief university officials more than a month before on the financial concerns surrounding the men’s basketball program.
“He not only kept us in the loop, but he wanted our opinion,” said Board of Trustees executive committee member Cato Johnson, who is the chief of staff and senior vice president of public policy and regulatory affairs at Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare, “even though we knew it was his decision.”
How Hardaway's hiring was years in the making
Hardaway’s return to campus took months for university officials to execute and involved discretion early on and leaks late.
It culminated Tuesday with an introductory press conference inside LaurieWalton Family Basketball Center, the program’s new $20.5 million practice facility, that felt like a coronation for one of the city’s greatest basketball products.
But the idea of hiring Hardaway also came up in April 2016 when former coach Josh Pastner left for Georgia Tech and Memphis hired Smith. How seriously Hardaway was considered for the position remains disputed.
Rudd, for instance, said Tuesday after Hardaway’s introduction, “you’re making a big assumption that Penny wasn’t a serious candidate two years ago.” But a member of the university’s search committee at the time said the committee was split on whether it should even discuss Hardaway.
The search committee member also confirmed what Hardaway said on ESPN 92.9 FM in November 2016: He never received a formal interview from Memphis.
“A couple years ago when Josh left … I started really thinking, ‘Man, I could be the next coach at the University of Memphis,' ” Hardaway said in an interview on Sports 56 WHBQ on Wednesday. “At that time, the timing wasn’t right, so I’m kind of glad it didn’t happen.”
There was no search committee two years later.
Rudd sprung into action on Feb. 3 after Memphis lost in overtime at ECU, part of a stretch in which the Tigers dropped five of six games. The players called it a “horrible” defeat and Smith wondered if his team needed “psychological help” when he spoke to reporters afterward.
That’s when Rudd first began contacting the executive committee of the university’s Board of Trustees and discussed the possibility of firing Smith, according to a person with direct knowledge of the situation.
The executive committee consists of executive vice president and chief financial officer of FedEx Alan B. Graf Jr., former interim university president and Chesapeake Energy chairman R. Brad Martin, and Johnson.
What they didn’t fully understand yet was that Hardaway had dreamed of becoming a college head coach for years and began seriously discussing a move to the college level in late 2017, two people close to Hardaway confirmed.
He thought Memphis would be the ideal job, but assumed the university would balk at paying Smith the $10 million price tag that came with firing him.
“This job isn’t going to be open for awhile,” Hardaway said in the radio interview Wednesday, describing his mindset during the weeks and months leading into his hiring. “We’ve got a Hall of Fame coach who’s won a championship and I just kind of support from afar. If that time comes up again, I just want to be in the mentions of being the coach.”
What prompted the first meeting with Hardaway
The next trigger point occurred once Ole Miss officially parted ways with former coach Andy Kennedy on Feb. 18.
Hardaway revealed in a radio interview with ESPN 92.9 FM that Ole Miss had actually been the initial school to approach him over the past month about being a college head coach next season.
“I really appreciate those guys there because they were the first ones that kind of showed some love for me to come in and be their coach,” Hardaway said. “That was big for me. But I just couldn’t. I wanted to be a Tiger and I knew that we already had a coach."
"There was not a vacancy here, so even though I was trying to wrap my brain around it, it was going to be hard for me to go down to Ole Miss and coach because I’m such a Memphis guy.”
But sources familiar with the university’s decision-making said Memphis took the interest from Ole Miss seriously. School officials and prominent boosters were also wary of rumors that Kentucky coach John Calipari could be interested in hiring Hardaway as an assistant coach to aid its pursuit of top 2019 prospect James Wiseman, the best player on Hardaway’s East High School team.
So on March 2, the day after the Tigers suffered an embarrassing 24-point loss to USF at FedExForum, a university representative met with Hardaway to gauge his interest in coaching at Memphis for the first time, according to three people with direct knowledge of the meeting.
“We’re not going to let you go to Ole Miss,” one person said when asked to describe the conversation.
By the end of the weekend, Hardaway’s potential candidacy began to leak around town. By Tuesday, Rudd said, “We’re going to evaluate the program at the end of the year,” when asked about Smith’s status.
By that night, CBS Sports reported Memphis was seriously considering hiring Hardaway as its next men’s basketball coach.
“When I met with Penny before David offered him the role, I looked him in the eye and he looked at me back and I could see this man is ready," said Graf, the chairman of the university's Board of Trustees, during an interview with Commercial Appeal columnist Geoff Calkins on ESPN 92.9 FM this week. "I don’t know if he was ready two years ago. He was certainly on our list and certainly considered. But I know he’s ready now. ”
How negotiations with Hardaway proceeded
While the pundits locally and nationally debated Smith’s job security and the possibility of Hardaway during the days leading into the 2018 AAC tournament, Rudd took a step back.
He already spent weeks preparing the executive committee of the Board of Trustees for this decision, providing them with detailed financial information about the state of the men’s basketball program, according to a person with knowledge of the situation.
Attendance at basketball games hit a 48-year-low this season and Rudd revealed Tuesday that the program lost $4.7 million in revenue this year. Season-ticket sales fell to 4,115, which Rudd termed a modern day low for the university. It had become too much to sustain. On March 11, one day after the Tigers learned they had missed the postseason for the fourth straight year and two days after Rudd called the executive committee members, Hardaway’s representatives arrived in Memphis to begin contract negotiations with the university’s general counsel, according to sources on both sides of the talks.
Hardaway, however, still had to coach East in the state tournament and SUNDAY, MARCH 25, 2018 Rudd still had to officially fire Smith.
A meeting with Smith was initially planned for the afternoon of March 12, according to two people with direct knowledge of the situation. But it got postponed for reasons that remain unclear.
A person familiar with Hardaway’s contract negotiations said Hardaway had not agreed to terms yet. That didn’t happen until the following afternoon of March 13, hours after Smith met with Rudd and athletic director Tom Bowen for 20 minutes. Smith confirmed his firing as he left the university’s Administration Building.
“Penny wanted to get the deal done and it was never about money with Penny,” one source said.
The Commercial Appeal reported on Thursday that Hardaway’s contract is worth $4.5 million over three years, although the exact amounts each year and the specifics of his incentives package are unknown.
“It was not a hard negotiation,” Hardaway said on Sports 56 WHBQ. “It was a pretty easy negotiation and it moved along accordingly. We both understood the magnitude of this and that it was needed on both sides.”
From tears to cheers in a few days
Hardaway downplayed and avoided the likelihood he was about to become the head coach at Memphis when asked about the situation throughout the state tournament. He expressed remorse on Tuesday with how news of his impending hire went public before the Tigers even played in the AAC tournament.
His first official meeting with Bowen occurred last Sunday, once East won its third straight Class AAA state title the day before.
Hardaway cried after the final buzzer sounded because “I started realizing the journey that had happened and that it could be coming to an end,” Hardaway said in an interview on Local 24 WATN.
From that point until he stepped onto the podium in front of hundreds of fans and supporters as the new Memphis men’s basketball coach on Tuesday at 11 a.m., Hardaway said he received more than 500 text messages and 85 emails.
A process that really began long ago had finally come to fruition.
“It’s an opportunity we have all thought about for many years," Bowen said before handing Hardaway his No. 25 Memphis State jersey at the introductory press conference. "And it’s now a reality."