NCAA Basketball: Penny Hardaway hypocritical with G League comments

Memphis’ Penny Hardaway isn’t jazzed with recruiting tactics by the NBA G League’s new initiative, but similar circumstances occur in NCAA basketball, too.

The NBA G League’s new developmental program, a lucrative option that has swayed some elite high-school prospects away from NCAA basketball, and will continue to do so, is frustrating collegiate head coaches such as Memphis’ Penny Hardaway. That’s understandable.

In recent weeks, a trio of five-star 2020 players in Jalen Green, Isaiah Todd and Daishen Nix has elected to forgo college hoops in favor of the G League. Green, for one, has said that if he went the collegiate route, he would have headed to Memphis.

So Hardaway is perhaps angry, disappointed, frustrated – and, true to his personality, speaking his mind. Hardaway told multiple media outlets via video that he doesn’t appreciate the G League’s recruiting strategies to lure top-flight talents away from college basketball.

“I didn’t think the G League was built – and I could be wrong – to go and recruit kids that want to go to college out of going to college,” Hardaway said, per this article from The Commercial Appeal. “I thought they were going to be the organization that was going to be, if you want to go overseas or you absolutely did not want to play college 100 percent, that this would be the best situation for you before you go into the NBA.

“But taking guys out of their commitments (or) they’ve already signed and continuing to talk to their parents, it’s almost like tampering. I really don’t agree with that,” Hardaway added.

Green had not verbally committed to the Tigers. According to various reports, Todd had committed to Michigan but had not officially signed with the Wolverines when he chose to follow the same path as Green. Nix, on the other hand, had signed a letter of intent with UCLA and reneged.

Is it ethical for those involved in the G League to pursue guys who have committed to a collegiate crew? Probably not. But does this kind of stuff occur between college teams themselves in attempting to win out in recruiting battles? I’d bet the farm on it, and I don’t have a farm to even bet.

If Hardaway is calling out the G League for dirty recruiting efforts, that’s pretty comical, considering all of the terrible press that college basketball has received in recent years stemming from corruption in the sport’s recruiting underbelly.

It’s fair to say that in the case of prospects who have committed to a collegiate program, for the G League to then swoop in afterward and scoop them up, the NBA is at that juncture coming in late to the party.

However, these young men change their minds with great frequency. So, too, do their coaches. This whole community of high-major college basketball, and pro basketball – they’re big businesses. And money rules the roost.

Hardaway is correct in that the NCAA’s recent move to let student-athletes profit from their name, image and likeness in the future is a positive step forward, even if many questions remain about the NCAA’s proposal on this topic.

And the G League’s new initiative could affect how Hardaway and his collegiate colleagues recruit. Now, they’ll lose out on stellar prospects not only to each other but also to the NBA.

Tampering, or some form of it, already exists. It might seem more extreme to Hardaway because the options for these kids have grown. Unfortunately, that’s just the nature of the game and a sign of the times.