A day of destiny for Memphis’ Penny Hardaway
They talked about this day. They talked about it all the time. Desmond Merriweather would tell his friend Penny Hardaway he was destined to become head coach of the Memphis Tigers. He’d say it was all part of the master plan.
Merriweather is the man who got Hardaway involved in coaching in the first place. This was back in 2011. Hardaway was struggling to find meaning in life after the NBA. Merriweather, the coach at Lester Middle School, asked Hardaway if he would stop by and help his team figure out how to attack a zone.
“I thought I was going to middle school to help a friend out,” said Hardaway. “It turned into this.”
This is a coaching career that started at Lester Middle, that continued with an AAU team, and that produced three state championships at East High
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Memphis basketball expected to announce Penny Hardaway’s hiring today.
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This is a day and a press conference that Merriweather saw coming long ago, as Hardaway is introduced Tuesday as the head coach of the Memphis Tigers.
Merriweather died of cancer in February of 2015. Wayne Drash — who wrote a book on Hardaway’s experiences at Lester Middle called “On These Courts” — visited Merriweather in the hospital not long before he died.
“He would always talk and joke about Penny becoming coach at Memphis,” Drash said. “As he became sicker, he was really adamant that it was going to happen. He felt it was preordained that Hardaway would bring Memphis its first national championship. He felt it was the last unfinished piece of business for Memphis.”
So no pressure, Penny. All you have to do is something that no Memphis coach has ever done.
Win a national championship. Complete the master plan. Or — if we’re going to be more restrained in our hopes and expectations, which we certainly should be — make Memphis basketball as compelling and as nationally-relevant as it was back when you played.
It’s a risk to hire Hardaway, certainly. Nobody would say otherwise.
But I refer you to the words of Thomas Carpenter, former president of the university, when he decided to grant Hardaway a special academic exception and admit him to the school.
“I decided he would be worth the risk,” said Carpenter. So it was then, so it shall be? That quote is from July 1990, nearly three decades ago. Hardaway didn’t have the grades and test scores to play for Memphis as a freshman but rebuffed junior college coaches who tried to lure him away from the city with immediate playing time.
“People wanted him here and he wants to be here,” said Memphis coach Larry Finch, which fits just as well today. People want Hardaway here. He wants to be here. The confluence could turn out to be a lot of fun.
Of course, Finch could also tell Hardaway of the perils that lie ahead, of the challenges that await a beloved hometown star who strives to become a beloved hometown coach. Stars can be beloved forever. Coaches? Not so much. Finch — who may be the only Memphis star more beloved than Hardaway — coached 11 years at Memphis and went to the NCAA Tournament in 6 of the 10 seasons Memphis was eligible. He led his alma mater to an Elite Eight and a Sweet 16. Indeed, Finch was fired less than two years after reaching the Sweet 16.
So it would be naive to think Hardaway is in for some sort of magic carpet ride. The team hasn’t been to the postseason — never mind the NCAA Tournament — in four long years. Basketball attendance is at a 48-year-low. Fans who once planned their lives around the Memphis basketball schedule now lose track of when games are being played.
That’s exactly why Hardaway is the man for the moment. Just as Finch was the man for the moment in 1969 (when he committed to play for Memphis) and in 1986 (when he agreed to take over for the disgraced Dana Kirk).
Now it is Hardaway’s turn to ride to the rescue. It’s hard not to think Finch would be proud.
It will be a surreal moment when Hardaway walks to the lectern Tuesday and accepts the Memphis job. And not just because some saw this coming a long time ago.
“I used to say it that Penny would compete for a national championship,” Drash said. “Dez insisted, ‘No, he’s going to become coach and he’s going to win it all.’ ”
The old friend has been right so far. What fun would it be to start doubting him now?