James Donell "Scoonie" Penn (born January 9, 1977) is an American professional basketball coach and former player who is an assistant coach for the Memphis Grizzlies of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was a point guard during his playing career that was spent primarily in Europe. Although Penn was selected in the 2000 NBA Draft by the Atlanta Hawks with the 57th overall pick, he never played a single game in the NBA, joining 7 other players from his draft class that never played in the league.

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Scoonie Penn

Penn, with Efes, in 2008.
Memphis Grizzlies
Position	Assistant coach
League	NBA
Personal information
Born	(1977-01-09) January 9, 1977 (age 47) Yonkers, New York, U.S.
Listed height	5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Listed weight	180 lb (82 kg)
Career information
High school	Salem (Salem, Massachusetts)
College	Boston College (1995–1997) Ohio State (1998–2000)
NBA draft	2000: 2nd round, 57th overall pick
Selected by the Atlanta Hawks
Playing career	2000–2011
Position	Point guard
Coaching career	2019–present
Career history
As player:
2000–2001	Trieste
2001–2002	Virtus Roma
2002	Asheville Altitude
2002–2003	Crvena zvezda
2003–2004	Cibona
2004	Makedonikos
2004–2005	Scavolini Pesaro
2005–2006	Cibona
2006–2007	Olympiacos
2007–2008	Efes Pilsen
2008–2009	Kyiv
2009	Virtus Bologna
2010	Olympiacos
2010–2011	Prima Veroli
As coach:
2019–present	Memphis Grizzlies (assistant)
Career highlights and awards
As player: 2× Croatian League champion (2004, 2006) Greek Cup winner (2010) Consensus second-team All-American (2000) Second-team All-American – USBWA (1999) Third-team All-American – AP, NABC (1999) Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award (2000) Big Ten co-Player of the Year (1999) 2× First-team All-Big Ten (1999, 2000) Big East Rookie of the Year (1996)
Stats  at Basketball-Reference.com
Medals Representing  United States Summer Universiade 1999 Palma

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Penn played high school basketball at Salem High School in Salem, Massachusetts. He led the team to a state championship in 1995.

After high school, Penn played college basketball at Boston College, before transferring to Ohio State University, where he teamed up to form a dominant back court with the future Milwaukee Bucks' shooting guard Michael Redd.

After college, Penn left the United States to play in Europe. He made his big splash with the Adriatic League club Crvena zvezda (Red Star Belgrade). He had a great 2002–03 season with Crvena zvezda. The fans loved him. He was the leader of the team, and that was the best season in his career.

Penn left Red Star the following season, and played in the 2005–06 season for Cibona Zagreb. In the 2006–07 season, he was a member of the Greek League club Olympiacos. He then moved to the Turkish Super League club Efes Pilsen, for the 2007–08 season, followed by the Ukrainian Super League club Kyiv, in the 2008–09 season.

At the beginning of the 2009–10 season, Penn made the move to the Italian League, to play with Virtus Bologna. On New Years Day, 2010, it was announced by Greek powerhouse Olympiacos, that Penn would return to the club, to replace Von Wafer, who had been released, due to his inability to adapt to the European game. In October 2010, he signed with Prima Veroli, which was playing in the Italian Second Division at the time.^[1]

As a member of Team USA, Penn won a gold medal at the 1999 Palma Summer Universiade.^[2]

After Penn retired from playing professional basketball, he became the director of player development for the Ohio State basketball program. On August 5, 2019, he accepted a position working as an assistant coach with the NBA's Memphis Grizzlies.^[3]

College:

• 1995–96 Big East Conference Rookie of the Year, First Team All-Big East Conference member.
• 1996–97 First Team All-Big East Conference. Big East Conference tournament championship winner (MVP).
• 1998–99 Big Ten Conference Co-Player of the Year.
• 1998–99 Led Ohio State to the NCAA Final Four.
• 1999–00 Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award, as the nation's top senior under 6'0" (1.83 m) tall.
• Selected Third Team All-America, and First Team All-Big Ten Conference, in both his junior season and senior season. Ended his career at Ohio State University, as the college's all-time leader in three-point field goals made.