Penny Hardaway blasts critical fans following weekly radio show

This week’s Penny Hardaway Radio Show at Brookhaven Pub & Grill was a feel-good story.

Caleb Mills—Monday night’s special guest—made his first public comments since a fractured patella ended his season on Jan. 4, and received a loud ovation from the restaurant’s patrons. Hardaway also got a great reaction during his segment, and sent the audience home happy and optimistic about his Tigers’ chances in this week’s American Athletic Conference (AAC or the American) Tournament.

But the fairytale took a sinister turn during Hardaway’s post-show chat with the local media. Memphis (22-9, 11-7 AAC) has had a disappointing season considering the way it started the campaign—15-2 and ranked No. 10 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll. It lost seven of its last 14 games and finished the regular season No. 5 in the AAC. This means the Tigers now have to win four games in four days at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas to earn a second consecutive conference tournament championship and a third consecutive NCAA Tournament bid.

These past two months of underwhelming basketball have left many Memphians unhappy and inpatient, with some even calling for the sixth-year coach’s firing on social media. Hardaway has largely ignored his critics for most of this season, but he finally clapped back Monday night. And he hardly sugarcoated anything.

“I laugh at our city. It’s funny to me how guys are always talking about how I need to be fired. I get it. But man, I took this job because it was as low as it has [ever] been. I don’t need any sympathy from anybody,” he said. “I gave up my retirement to come here and help the University of Memphis and the city. And I feel like I’ve done a great job.”

In Hardaway’s first five seasons, the Tigers won just one NCAA Tournament game in two March Madness appearances. Despite two No. 1 high school recruiting classes and high-level success in the transfer portal, they didn’t win an AAC regular season title and never received anything better than a No. 8 seed in the Big Dance.

And Hardaway—despite arguably having his most talented roster yet this year—is on track to miss the tournament for the fourth time in six seasons unless his team wins the conference tourney this weekend. But there are more to those numbers than what meets the eye, according to him.

“What we’ve accomplished as a group, I look at it in [my last] four years. I inherited a group [in 2018-19], and went to the second round of the NIT. The [2019-20 team] was an NIT group. So, I really [have] had four years to try to do what I’ve done, and I feel like I’ve done pretty well,” Hardaway said. “I’m not rested on anything. Like I said, I wanna be in NCAA Tournaments and make it to Final Fours. It just has to match. When you’re putting teams together—12-13 [new] guys every year—you never know when that’s gonna gel. When we won early, it spoiled all of us. When you go the other way, it’s weird. I’m the first to say we had some really bad losses at home and didn’t take care of business. But the chemistry has to be there. It’s not just about talent.”

Hardaway also wrote that “it will never be enough in some people’s eyes” in a cryptic Instagram story post Sunday night, which seemingly alluded to his feelings about the fans’ criticisms. He followed that post up with a photo of last season’s AAC Tournament trophy, which Memphis won by beating No. 1 Houston in the championship game.

“The standard of the program has gone way up since I’ve been the coach…I don’t know about [the] fairness of [the] criticism. Everybody has their opinion. They can do whatever they want. But I feel like my résumé is pretty d*** good for coaches that are just starting,” he said. “How long do you get before they say, ‘OK, it’s time for you to go,’ and then [they] start it all over? It’s not easy to recruit in Memphis. It’s not easy to get players here. And I’ve done a great job of getting players to come here to Memphis and represent us in a great fashion. So, I don’t understand it. I get what they’re saying, but I just don’t understand it.”

Hardaway and the Tigers begin AAC Tournament action against either Wichita State or Rice on Thursday afternoon (1:30 p.m., ESPNU).