Penny Hardaway

About

Anfernee Deon “Penny” Hardaway (born July 18, 1971) is an American college basketball coach and former professional player who is the head coach of the Memphis Tigers men’s team in the American Athletic Conference (AAC). Hardaway played college basketball at Memphis and 14 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA), where he was a four-time NBA All-Star and a three-time All-NBA Team member as a member of the Orlando Magic. He also played for the Phoenix Suns, New York Knicks and the Miami Heat.

Hardaway is the son of Fae Hardaway (born 1951) and Eddie Golden. The name Anfernee () was that of a schoolmate of his mother. When she left Memphis to work in Oakland in 1974, she left her son with her mother, Louise. His nickname came as a result of his grandmother’s calling him “Pretty” with a southern drawl, thus sounding like “Penny”. He wore #1 on his jersey in part because a penny is worth one cent. Hardaway’s first love was football, but his grandmother did not want him to get hurt. He was raised in the Binghampton neighborhood of shotgun houses in Memphis. As a teenager, Hardaway refereed youth sports at the Memphis YMCA and played on its Jr. Olympic basketball…