2020 NBA Draft top prospect James Wiseman's NCAA career is essentially over before it began. The big man from Tennessee had his eligibility stripped by the NCAA, and he was only able to play three games for the Tigers before turning his attention on the upcoming NBA draft in June.
Wiseman, 18, elaborated on how he was treated by the collegiate athletics organization, telling ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski the experience was “dehumanizing.”
“I wanted to have a great collegiate career,” Wiseman told ESPN. “I wanted to win a national championship. But throughout the course of the first two games, everything started to go down in terms of my mental [well-being]. I was getting depressed. It was dehumanizing for me.
“I felt it was unfair because they notified and alerted me at the last minute. Coach Penny told me about it. I was really down and shocked. When I got suspended for 12 games and had to pay back the money, that was kind of surreal. I didn't really have any knowledge of [the violation] or all the ramifications behind it.”
Wiseman is projected to be a top-five pick in the draft in a few months, but in the process, he had at least a year of college ball taken away from him. The NCAA claimed Wiseman accepted cash from former NBA great and current Tigers head coach Penny Hardaway prior to the retired point guard's tenure on the sidelines in Memphis.
Due to the discovery, which came in the form of an expense paid by Hardaway to move the Wiseman family to Memphis, the future NBA center had to see his NCAA career on the hardwood disappear.
Follow Us
Subscribe