Wiseman’s debut lives up to hype
Alex Lomax's favorite dunk came off the lob he threw.
When he tossed the ball from the top of the key, watched it float in the air and just knew James Wiseman would slam it through the basket like he was trying to break the rim again. It reminded him of being back at East High School. He so badly wanted to experience that intoxicating feeling again.
“It had been a long time since I had it where I just sit there and get the easiest assist in the world,” Lomax said.
Tuesday night, the wait finally ended.
The official start of the most anticipated Memphis basketball season in at least a decade also served as the unveiling of its most prized prospect in at least a decade. That the Tigers beat South Carolina State 97-64 for their first win of the year was merely a footnote.
Because the way Wiseman dunked was startling. The way he ran the floor was stunning. The way he did both in the same sequence was downright scary. And the way rest of his teammates responded was striking.
This looked more like the juggernaut Penny Hardaway and his No. 1 recruiting class billed themselves to be this offseason, not the cautious, uncertain group that struggled more than expected in two exhibition games.
But it was Wiseman, above all else, who wowed a crowd that featured new Memphis Grizzlies star Ja Morant and Memphis football coach Mike Norvell.
Wiseman had the first two field goals of the season before the game was a minute old. He had nine points before he had even played five minutes. He had 20 points and eight rebounds by halftime.
He had 28 points, 11 rebounds and three blocks on 11-of-14 shooting before Hardaway removed him after just 22 minutes of action.
It will go down as one of the great debuts in program history, perhaps even the greatest.
It was, according to Hardaway, better than his own debut for Memphis State in 1991, when he finished with 18 points, 15 rebounds, six assists, four steals, four blocks and 13 turnovers in an overtime loss to Depaul to open The Pyramid.
Even when Wiseman's shoelaces broke and he had to switch shoes in the first half, he just kept dunking.
His first dunk was a put-back slam in the opening minute. His second one was that alley oop from Lomax.
The third one, which came about a minute later on a fastbreak, was the best of all. Wiseman launched down the floor like a lion chasing his prey, covering ground like no ordinary human can and erasing any doubts about the lingering right ankle injury that forced him to miss the Tigers' two exhibition games with a thunderous tomahawk jam.
It felt, as Hardaway predicted Monday, like this 7-foot-1 physical freak of a freshman was the one freshman who brought this entire operation together.
Who protects the rim on defense, plays at the rim on offense and provides a safety valve for everyone he plays with.
Who will ensure the all-freshmen starting lineup Memphis trotted out Tuesday remains a national storyline for the remainder of this season.
“We followed his lead,” Lomax said. “He cleaned up a lot of things that we'd been doing bad lately.”
“James Wiseman,” Hardaway added, “makes the game a lot easier for everybody.”
Everything Wiseman did Tuesday seemed to carry greater signifthe
icance.
His warmups were held with a bevy of cameras and cell phones chronicling every drill. His introduction in the starting lineup elicited a loud roar, almost as loud as the one Hardaway received.
So of course, when Wiseman fell to the floor in pain, it created a level of concern almost as impressive as any of the highlight-reel plays that preceded it.
Wiseman came flying through the lane with 7:15 left in the first half, another thunderous slam within arm's reach, and then everything stopped for a moment. The dunk party, the ovations, the electricity that appeared after those two uninspiring exhibition games, it all briefly vanished.
There was this program's unicorn, upended awkwardly by a defender, crashing to the court with a thud. The whole place gasped in horror.
“Just get up,” Hardaway thought. “That was devastating for me because I was in the air,” Wiseman said. “So I was like, ‘Oh my God. What should I do?'”
This was every Tiger fan's worst fear. This was why Wiseman missed those two exhibition games. This was, as frightening as it looked, also a reminder on a night filled with them — once Wiseman got up, sank two free throws and continued to dunk on everyone in his way.
Nobody is more important to the Tigers' success than Wiseman.
He can, as Wiseman put it himself, “change the whole dynamic of the team” just by being on the court.
He was everything Memphis hoped he would be in a season opener that began with more hope than this program has had in a long, long time.
So Hardaway sounded a lot like Lomax when it was over, in awe of what he'd just seen. He compared the experience of watching Wiseman catch alley oops to playing with Shaq.
“I know how that feels as a guard to just put it anywhere near the rim and him go and get it and you get an assist like that,” Hardaway said.
It's a feeling Memphis doesn't have to wait for any more.