UNC Basketball: Former Tar Heel to join forces with Penny Hardaway?

Is former UNC basketball star and NBA veteran Rasheed Wallace looking to join forces with Memphis’ Penny Hardaway?

North Carolina basketball legend and 16-year NBA veteran Rasheed Wallace is believed to be in consideration for a position on Penny Hardaway’s Memphis Tigers coaching staff.

Speculation of the move began to pick up steam early this week, as ESPN’s Marc Stein called Wallace a “prime candidate” to fill an assistant role on Hardaway’s bench. Wallace’s former head coach and mentor, Larry Brown, was recently added to Hardaway’s staff. The two former Detroit Pistons share mutual respect and chemistry that would make them an ideal duo on Hardaway’s new-look staff.

And speaking of Detroit, Wallace began building his coaching resume as an assistant for the Pistons during the 2013-14 season under Maurice Cheeks. Unfortunately, it didn’t last long, as the latter was replaced at season’s end and a completely new regime was ushered in to take over. Wallace spent a couple of years (2019-2021) as head basketball coach at Charles E. Jordan High School in Durham, North Carolina. And he recently accepted the head coaching position at NC Good Better Best Academy, though it now looks as if his stay there may be a very short one.

If, in fact, Wallace is hired to coach alongside Hardaway and Brown — who remains the only coach in history to win both an NCAA Tournament title and an NBA Finals championship — the Tigers’ coaching acumen will be off the charts.

Hardaway might have been one of the best to ever play the game of basketball had it not been for injuries, and Brown has one of the greatest minds that the sport has ever seen. Wallace, for his part, isn’t simply the loud-mouth, rough and tumble character that many of us fondly remember him as, but a four-time NBA All-Star who scored better than 16,000 points in his storied career.

Prior to that, Wallace played two seasons at the University of North Carolina under legendary head coach Dean Smith. He was a first team All-ACC selection and a second team All-American in 1995, and his No. 30 jersey is honored in the Smith Center rafters.

We’ll continue to follow this story as it develops, as well as everything related to the UNC basketball program.