Memphis Legend, Coach Calls For NIL Governing Body

On a recent podcast with Shaquille O’Neal, Penny Hardaway advocated for some kind of governance of NIL.

Memphis men’s basketball coach Penny Hardaway speaks with players and Memphis staff after a press conference where Memphis’ new athletic director, Ed Scott, was introduced at the Laurie-Walton Family Basketball Center in Memphis, Tenn., on Friday, June 28, 2024. / Chris Day/The Commercial Appeal / USA

Memphis men’s basketball coach Penny Hardaway and NBA Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal go way back.

O’Neal was the No. 1 overall pick by the Orlando Magic in 1992. Hardaway was selected No. 3 overall a year later by Golden State but was dealt to Orlando for three draft picks and Chris Webber.

Two years after they became teammates they took the Magic to their first NBA Finals appearance, where they lost to the Houston Rockets. The pair played together for three seasons before O’Neal migrated west to join the Los Angeles Lakers, where he won three NBA titles with Kobe Bryant.

These days, O’Neal serves as an analyst for TNT’s “Inside the NBA” program, which is the gold standard for pre-game and post-game analysis.

Injuries limited Hardaway to scoring just under 11,000 career points. But he was still a four-time NBA All-Star, an Olympic Gold Medal winner and a Memphis legend, who has his No. 25 retired, is now the Tigers’ head coach.

His coaching career drew Hardaway to make an appearance on O’Neal’s podcast, "The Big Podcast with Shaq.”

They spent some time reminiscing about their days as teammates in Orlando but also as contemporaries in the college game, where both where superstars and surely would have done well in this new era of Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) money.

In fact, he told O’Neal that he could have landed “four, five million” dollars in NIL deals if they had the chance back then.

That’s part of the reason why he said he’s advocating for some kind of a governing body to oversee NIL. It’s a world Hardaway must navigate as a head coach, where he’s led the Tigers to 133 wins in six seasons, with two NCAA Tournament appearances and a postseason NIT title in 2021.

“I would love that, because there should be a governing body,” Hardaway said. “I think what's making the boosters and the donors around the country frown is because they can give a guy 5, 6, 800K, and he could have the best year of his life. But if someone offers him $2 million next year, he's gone. And that's what's the problem is with college sports right now.”

He told O’Neal that this new world is “…survival of the fittest” and that’s “…it’s not about hooping anymore.”

"We're in a world right now where it's happening, it's here, there's nothing you can do about it," Hardaway said. "And it's survival of the fittest. You have to have a fan base that understands that you have to have the donors and the (Memphis) Rebounders and the boosters that understand. You have to have a president and an AD that believe in it and understand it. So it's a whole thing now."