Penny Hardaway's past is a big part of Mikey Williams' murky future at Memphis | Giannotto

Penny Hardaway had already seen the photo floating around social media, well before the latest update on Mikey Williams arrived.

It’s of Hardaway on the phone in April 1991, seated on the edge of the bed in his dorm room at Memphis State, a cast covering his right foot, running all the way up his leg, ending below the knee.

Hardaway, who hadn’t yet played for the Tigers because he was a non-qualifier out of Treadwell High School, had been robbed at gunpoint and struck by a bullet. More than 30 years later, the picture triggered an immediate response from the Memphis basketball coach when he was shown it once more after practice Wednesday.

“I was lucky I got shot where I got shot,” Hardaway said.

Perhaps it’s worth thinking about that exchange, and thinking about what Hardaway had to go through as a teenager before he could step on the court for Memphis, as you digest the statement the university made about Williams a few hours earlier.

If you don’t understand the way Hardaway is handling the Mikey Williams situation — why Memphis is still leaving the door open ever so slightly for him to play this season despite six pending felony charges in San Diego — you probably don’t quite understand Hardaway, or how many people he needed to help him get to Memphis.

The circumstances, of course, aren’t the same.

Williams is accused of shooting a gun at a car full of people on his property in March, though the exact details remain murky. Hardaway was once deemed academically ineligible by the NCAA and became the victim of a shooting.

Hardaway needed a special exemption from Memphis State University president Thomas Carpenter to enroll, then needed a whole bunch of good fortune to escape an act of gun violence with just a few broken bones in his foot. Williams, if he’s ever to play at Memphis, will need Hardaway’s support right now — and a whole bunch of good fortune navigating the California legal system and its strict gun laws.

“It’s easier for me to deal with it,” Hardaway said of the situation, “because I’ve been through it.”

It’s also much easier to reconcile whatever misgivings there might be about Williams when framed that way.

But to be clear: There shouldn’t be an issue with the way Memphis has approached Williams while he awaits his day in court. Just as there shouldn't be an issue with the statement the program put out Wednesday to clarify his standing:

“While Mikey Williams is enrolled in online classes at the University of Memphis and remains on the roster, he will not have access to team-related facilities or activities until his pending legal process in California is complete. The process to assess and determine his status with the team will be initiated at that time.”

Let a judge in San Diego do the dirty work of ending Williams’ Memphis career before it starts, if he’s indeed guilty of the felony charges he’s facing. There’s no need for Hardaway or Memphis to be the bad guy here.

Now, would Hardaway be willing to stomach all of that uncertainty for a run-of-the-mill recruit? Probably not. We’ve seen him be ruthless with his roster decisions.

But he confirmed to The Commercial Appeal he sees some of himself in Williams. That is more significant than the recruiting services that no longer consider the 6-foot-3 guard a five-star prospect. That takes precedent over how complicated this might get if Williams is innocent and gets injected midseason into an already loaded roster full of veterans.

“We’re just supporting him,” Hardaway said. “There is no news that’s come out to change our minds or think any differently, so we’re just supporting him.”

“However it goes,” he added, “I’m going to have his back.”

Beneath all of Hardaway’s flash, this sense of duty is at the core of his post-playing career. It's what drew him to coaching in the first place, when Desmond Merriweather got cancer and needed help coaching at Lester Middle School and East High School. It’s why he’s at Memphis fighting an uphill battle outside the power conferences. He sometimes leans too much into that trait.

This may well end up being remembered as that, as another unnecessary risk.

ANALYSIS: 3 observations from Memphis basketball's second practice -- No lack of shot creators

But the most likely scenario, still, is that Williams never plays here. That a judge in San Diego, not Hardaway’s “support," determines his fate. Waiting to see what happens should not be controversial.

Not if you know what motivates Hardaway. Not when you consider that photo.

Memphian Melvin Purdy is the one who rediscovered it last week within a digitized version of a 1996 book on Hardaway by Jeremy Daniels. Purdy's subsequent post on X received more than 2.4 million views — including one from Hardaway, apparently — with many noting they either had never seen the picture or never knew Hardaway had been shot.

Now imagine if nobody had given him another chance.

You can reach Commercial Appeal columnist Mark Giannotto via email at mgiannotto@gannett.com and follow him on X: @mgiannotto

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphis Tigers basketball: Penny Hardaway's past and Mikey Williams