MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Penny Hardaway has wanted Larry Brown to coach with him ever since he took over at his alma mater. Three years later, they have that chance at Memphis.
“I've always wanted to be around greatness,” Hardaway said Monday after Brown's first practice as his assistant. “It doesn't mean that I didn't know anything myself. It's just iron sharpens iron. ... That's why I kept fighting to get him here.”
Hardaway played for Brown when both were with the New York Knicks. Now, the only coach to win championships in both the NCAA (with Kansas in 1988) and the NBA (Detroit Pistons, 2004) is 80, and his last coaching job in 2018 was as head coach of Auxilum Torino in Italy's Lega Basket Serie A.