J
AMES WISEMANis on the periph-
ery of the conversation, distracted by the
rapid-fire click of a camera shutter; it’s
not his first photo shoot, and it definitely
won’t be the last. Anyway, it’s not his
conversation, not directly anyway. Some-
one is asking his coach to talk about
Wiseman’s game, about his development thus far and
his future on the court. As is often the case these days
when people are talking about the future of basket-
ball, James Wiseman is the subject.
And then, without warning, Wiseman is abruptly
invited to join the convo. Jevonte Holmes, his coach at
Memphis East (TN) High, is sharing an anecdote that
needs the player’s confirmation. It’s a short anecdote
with a happy ending, but the beginning is a different
story; the beginning is harsh, the sort of memory a
kid doesn’t want to be reminded of, let alone asked to
re-live. But Holmes tells it anyway, because he knows
it’s worth telling, and he knows how it ends. Holmes
invites Wiseman to play his part, and he does, without
hesitation.
“There was a point in time last year,” Holmes be-
gins, “in a game we lost, I think he missed...” and here
the coach alters his audience. “How many free throws
did you miss down the stretch?”
Wiseman’s reply is immediate: “About 6 or 7.”
“He missed like 6, 7 free throws,” Holmes says,
rejoining the conversation. “And you know what he did
every day this year after practice? He made 50, in a
row, before he’d leave the gym.”
Oh, and the kicker: “This year, he shot 81 percent
from the line.”This year, by the time you
read this, will refer to Wise-
man’s recently completed senior
season, which ended in a loss in
the Tennessee class AAA state
championship game. East played
the final without 6-8 forward and
top-150 recruit Malcolm Dan-
dridge, but there were no excuses
for Wiseman and Co. afterward,
only frustration—and motivation.
“We fought hard, but we just came
up short. It drives me a lot,” Wise-
man says, the pain of the loss days
earlier still sharp. “I think about it
every night, and it just makes me
want to work hard every day. Work
hard, and just play harder.”
Another setback endured, and
another bounce back is in the
works. If this is James Wiseman’s
M.O., it bodes very well for his fu-
ture. The 7-1, 230-pounder ended
his senior season as the consensus
No. 1 player in the 2019 class, a
spot he began creeping up on in the
summer of 2017 and solidified over
the past 18 months. Too big, too
athletic, too versatile, too talented,
too much: Wiseman has all the
traits of the game’s new breed of
unicorn, a fact he emphasized last
November at the press conferencewhere he announced his college
choice—by reaching into a bag and
pulling out a stuffed unicorn with a
Memphis Tigers logo on it.
He’s a Nashville native, but
Wiseman’s decision to sign with
the University of Memphis has
something of a hometown feel to it.
He spent his first two years of high
school at Nashville’s private En-
sworth School, but he suited up in
the summer for Penny Hardaway’s
Team Penny on the Nike AAU
circuit. Given that connection, it
made sense that Wiseman would
head a few hours southwest in
search of better coaching and
tougher competition to finish his
high school career at Memphis
East—where Penny was then the
school’s head coach. The inevitable
eligibility questions followed, but
Wiseman ultimately suited up for
East and helped lead the school to
its third straight state title in the
spring of 2018.
And that’s when Penny made
the jump to the college ranks,
taking the job at his alma mater
and giving his now-former star
player a fairly easy choice about
his own college decision. Last
November, with some help fromTHE FUTURE ISSUE
TOO BIG,
TOO ATHLETIC,
TOO VERSATILE,
TOO TALENTED:
WISEMAN HAS ALL
THE TRAITS OF THE
GAME’S NEW BREED
OF UNICORN.
52 SLAMONLINE.COM