Penny Hardaway slams ESPN analyst's DeAndre Williams age joke
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DeAndre Williams is mostly known for being the oldest player in college basketball this year.
His coach, Penny Hardaway, is sick and tired of that narrative.
Williams is a 26 year-old senior forward who averages 17.3 points and 7.9 rebounds a game for Memphis while shooting 54 percent from the field. He is one of the American Athletic Conference’s best players this year as he’s sixth in scoring, fourth in rebounding, and second in field-goal percentage in the league.
Despite his solid production, Williams’ age is what stands out in the public eye.
In Sunday’s 72-62 loss against top-ranked Houston, ESPN analyst Mark Adams poked fun at the age of the Tigers forward. He joked that Williams was “only 39 years away from Medicare” during the broadcast, which struck a nerve with Hardaway.
During his weekly radio show on Monday, Hardaway shed some light on the history of Williams’ situation.
“He got tricked by some guys to leave his high school to go to a virtual school,” Hardaway explained. “Stayed there to play basketball, was promised he was gonna get these different scholarships. He did not get the scholarships and the guys just left him hanging. Found out that none of the accreditation would carry over for him to get into college. He has to go to night school and work until he got his credits back up to go to college. Didn’t get into college until 21 years old.”
It wasn’t until the 2018-19 season when Williams — as a 22-year-old freshman— saw his first collegiate action at Evansville.
“Every time we have a telecast, these commentators are talking about his age in a negative fashion, I think that’s so bad,” Hardaway continued. “I think it is unfair how they always talk about his age during the games. I hate that for DeAndre. It was brought to my attention about Stetson Bennett, the quarterback at Georgia, is 25 years old. I didn’t know he was that old, because they would never say it. So, what’s the difference? To me, it just has to be fair across the board.”
Williams himself commented about the age digs in a recent interview with The Commercial Appeal.
“I know it’s more love than negativity, but the negative stuff can get to you,” Williams said. “In all reality, like, by myself at home, sometimes I don’t feel great. I am human. I’m just a regular person. It can demoralize you. But I try not to complain when people talk about my age, (because) nobody knows, has no idea how I got here. If they wondered how I got here or knew how I got here, they wouldn’t say anything bad.”
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