TSSAA fines Memphis East $15K, strips championship for Penny Hardaway's recruitment of James Wiseman

The Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association has erased most of the James Wiseman and Penny Hardaway eras at Memphis East after ordering the school to vacate all wins and championship hardware from Wiseman's two seasons with the Mustangs for violation of the TSSAA's recruiting rule, according to a TSSAA letter obtained by The Commercial Appeal. 

The letter calls for East to retroactively forfeit all games Wiseman participated in during the 2017-18 and 2018-19 boys basketball seasons. East is required to vacate all postseason victories — including the 2018 state championship and 2019 state runner-up trophies. And the TSSAA fined the school nearly $15,000, which includes asking for the return of all postseason funds it received.

More:Penny Hardaway and James Wiseman broke the rules, but TSSAA can't erase what they did | Giannotto

The punishment stems from Hardaway's recruitment of Wiseman from Nashville Ensworth to Memphis East, including payments to Wiseman's mother for moving expenses.

Wiseman will not be stripped of the Mr. Basketball award he won in 2019. 

"I'm disappointed to learn of this decision," Hardaway said in a statement to The Commercial Appeal. "However, it doesn't erase the lives that were changed and the positive impacts on our youth that were made during my time at East High School"

In the TSSAA letter, which was sent to Memphis East on Aug. 24, new TSSAA executive director Mark Reeves presented a timeline outlining Hardaway and Wiseman's years-long connection, beginning with Wiseman's time with Team Penny — Hardaway's old AAU program — and continuing through Wiseman's career at East (2017-19) and the Memphis Tigers (November 2019).

The TSSAA learned of the recruiting rule violation in the "verified complaint" Wiseman submitted in 2019 upon suing the NCAA over his college ineligibility during his freshman season with the Tigers. The NCAA issue stemmed from the same cash benefit outlined in the TSSAA letter.

[Read the letter from TSSAA to Memphis East High School below]

In the NCAA lawsuit, Wiseman wrote that Hardaway, who guided East to the Class AAA state title in 2018 before being hired as the Tigers' basketball coach, provided approximately $11,500 in relocation and living expenses to Wiseman's mother to relocate from Ensworth, a private school in Nashville. 

That money violated the TSSAA's recruiting rule, which states: "Athletic recruiting is the influence on a student or the parents or the guardians of the student, by any person(s) directly or indirectly associated with the school, to secure or retain a student for athletic purposes. In the event that there is a violation of this rule, there shall be a penalty against the school, and the student(s) who was subject to the violations shall be ineligible for a minimum of one year.

"The penalty and any additional period of ineligibility beyond the one-year minimum will be determined by the Executive Director based on a consideration of the number of violations involved, the number of student-athletes involved, the nature of the violation(s), the individua(s) responsible for the violation(s) and the extent to which the violation may have been knowing, deliberate, or in reckless disregard of the provisions of this rule and the commentary that accompanies the rule."

Wiseman played at Ensworth through his sophomore year before transferring. Hardaway was the coach at East during the 2017-18 school year and was considered an assistant for East's 2016 and 2017 championship teams — even though he served as the de facto head coach. East will not have to return the 2016 and 2017 championship trophies because they preceded Wiseman's arrival.

Memphis East can appeal the decision to the TSSAA Board of Control.

"The District is currently reviewing all available options, including the possibility of appealing the sanctions," Memphis-Shelby County Schools said in a statement Friday. "... Unfortunately, the morale of current student-athletes may be impacted by the alleged violations that happened years ago, long before many of today’s student-athletes enrolled in the school."

Breaking down the punishment

All 66 games Wiseman played at East — 32 during the 2017-18 season and 34 during the 2018-19 season — are vacated, resulting in $6,600 in fines, or $100 per game played by TSSAA rule. The team must also return $8,207.56 in TSSAA playoff earnings. That includes more than $6,000 from the TSSAA's state tournament distribution. The total due to the TSSAA is $14,807.56.

The state championship gold ball from 2018 and silver ball from 2019 have also been asked to be returned, along with any awards given during the TSSAA tournament series.

The TSSAA letter provides the first bit of resolution of the Hardaway-Wiseman saga, which has embroiled the Memphis Tigers basketball program in an unresolved NCAA infractions case. 

Wiseman filed the NCAA lawsuit after being ruled ineligible because of the same moving expenses at the center of the TSSAA recruiting violation. Hardaway, who played at Memphis, was considered a booster by the NCAA because of a $1 million donation he gave the university in 2008. 

Wiseman eventually dropped his lawsuit against the NCAA a few weeks after he filed, was ordered by the NCAA to donate the $11,500 he received from Hardaway to a charity of his choice and was suspended for 12 games. He played just three games that season before withdrawing from the school to prepare for the 2020 NBA Draft.

The NCAA then opened an infractions case against Memphis since it played Wiseman when he was "likely ineligible" and it subsequently became the first case in the NCAA's Independent Accountability Resolution Process. 

The Golden State Warriors selected Wiseman with the No. 2 overall pick.  

Wiseman was named  Gatorade national player of the year for boys basketball his senior year and was a McDonald’s All-American.  

Because of Wiseman’s accomplishments during his time at Memphis East, when the Warriors were in town in January 2022, Memphis East held a jersey retirement ceremony for Wiseman. The city also declared Jan. 10, 2022 as James Montez Wiseman Day at the ceremony.  

Reach Wynston Wilcox at wwilcox@gannett.com and on Twitter @wynstonw__.