My Grizzlies

[iwaskirsdarke]

During my long, involuntary hiatus from the Internet, I became a bit...well, obsessed with the Memphis Grizzlies. Those of you who follow me on Twitter probably noticed. Having absolutely nothing to do, I needed something to cheer me up, and damn if they didn't do the trick. Dad and I have gone to occasional Grizzlies games for the last few years, but this was the season when I started doing my homework and paying attention and annoying anybody who will listen.

So now that I'm back on LiveJournal, of course I have to make a ridiculously long post telling you everything I know about my new favorite team. I wanted to get this done earlier, but haven't had a chance. As I type this introduction, I'm about 3 hours from going downtown to meet Dad and go to the first pre-season game, but we're still a week before the regular season starts, so I guess it's good timing.

So sit back and read on. I'll try to make this as painless as possible.


History Lesson

The Memphis Grizzlies started as the Vancouver Grizzlies. This didn't work out so well for them (coooold), and they decided to move South to somewhere warmer. The Grizzlies and the Charlotte Hornets both applied (on the same day, nonetheless) to move to Memphis in 2001, and the Grizzlies won the weather sympathy vote. Apparently FedEx wanted the team to be renamed the Memphis Express, but the NBA said no because corporations can't name teams, and also, that's a stupid name.

So the Memphis Grizzlies sucked for the first two seasons (01-02, 02-03), got to the playoffs for three straight years (03-04, 04-05, 05-06) without managing to actually win any playoff games, and then started sucking again.

In February 2008, the Grizzlies traded Pau Gasol to the L.A. Lakers (by Pau's request, if I remember). This was mostly considered a terrible idea. That Summer, Grizzlies owner Michael Heisley said (more or less) that we were gonna get back to the playoffs in three years, and then win a championship, and then everyone was like, "Oh, the guy's crazy. That explains it."

In January 2009, Lionel Hollins was hired as head coach (again), and got right to work. Marc Gasol said in one interview that the players originally thought he was kind of crazy. Then they started winning.



The 10th Season

The Grizzlies weren't fucking around anymore. They had a 40-win season (just short of a .500 record) in 09-10, and this was the third year of Heisley's three-year plan. People were hoping for a winning team, even if they didn't actually expect it. The team didn't disappoint. The total regular-season record was 46 wins-36 losses, and we got an 8th-seed playoff spot.

And then everyone looked at Michael Heisley like, "Shit, man, we didn't think you'd actually do it."

By the time the playoffs began, the city was won over. Every home playoff game was an instant sell-out, and FedEx Forum was packed to the rafters with fans. Loud, happy, excited fans. 18,000 of them, holding up flags, posters and growl towels and yelling our lungs out for our team. Finally, they were really our team.

They dispatched with the San Antonio Spurs- the best team in the Western Conference- in six games (including the franchise's first playoff win ever). Then came the Oklahoma City Thunder and a 2nd round that went to seven games, including a triple-overtime loss that kept me up to one in the morning and was totally worth it.

The team flew home after the loss of game seven and were greeted at the airport by a mob of loving fans. At least three of them named that as their favorite moment of the season.



Current Roster
So here's the long part- our current roster of players and what you need to know about them. I honestly don't know much about positions or what they mean, but maybe you do, so they're here.

Zach Randolph

#50; Co-Captain; Forward-Center; AKA Z-Bo
Zach is one of our "franchise players", a high-profile name and a fan favorite. He's known for aggressiveness and great rebounding, primarily, and in the 10-11 season, he was regularly our highest scorer. Before coming to Memphis in 2009, he played for the Portland Trail-Blazers, New York Knicks, L.A. Clippers, and had a few disciplinary and legal problems. He's calmed down since he got here, at least partly because he has a couple of kids now, and now he's known to be a great team leader and a really nice guy.

Marc Gasol

#33; Center; AKA Big Man, Big Spain (from Tony Allen), Z-Bo's "Big Little Brother"
Marc Gasol is Pau Gasol's little brother, and was part of the infamous trade in 2008. He came with his family in 2001 when Pau joined the team, played high school ball here in Memphis, and played a few years back in Spain before returning. He and Zach are basically considered the main one-two punch of team. When Zach was re-signed in April, it was under the condition that they would re-sign Marc, too, which they did, and during the lockout, when asked if he would play overseas, Zach said he was gonna "stick with his big guy." Marc is a core member of the team, and we could not have had that amazing season without him.
Also, he's dreamy.

Tony Allen

#9; Guard-Forward; Twitter Account
Oh, Tony. How do we describe Tony Allen? If the Grizzlies were a rap group, Tony Allen would be the hype man. He's the team's energy. He's an incredible defensive player and has a signature "tough-guy" mentality. He might also be a little bit insane, but we love him anyway. He played for Boston (and, like Zach, had some legal trouble) before coming to Memphis, where he's become a local legend, both for being another core member of the team, and for just being his awesome self.
(I don't think he's related to Ray Allen.)

Mike Conley, Jr.

#11; Point Guard; NBPA Team Representative
The Grizzlie's drafted Mike Conley in the 2007, and he's stuck with them ever since. He's one of the Grizzlies that I don't know as much about as I probably should. He's a great, consistent player, and one of the starters through the 10-11 season, but I guess I just don't pay him a lot of attention. Sorry, Mike.
Not to be confused with Mike Conley, Sr., his dad, who was an Olympic track star.

Sam Young

#4; Small Forward
Sam Young was drafted by the Grizzlies in 2009. He's another good, consistent player that I don't know that much about, outside of the fact that he writes poetry, plays piano, and is known for having a crazy work ethic.

Rudy Gay

#22; Co-Captain; Small Forward
I want to hug Rudy Gay. He's been with the Grizzlies since 2006, when he was drafted and then traded by the Houston Rockets in exchange for Shane Battier. He's since become another of the "core members" of the team, one of the leading scorers, and a huge fan favorite. The last time he played in the 10-11 season was in February. He went down during the game with a dislocated shoulder and spent a couple of minutes on the floor writhing in pain before getting up and sinking a free throw one-handed in a Crowning Moment of Awesome. Due to complications with his shoulder, he ended up sitting out the rest of the season and seeing his team have their best post-season ever without him, which meant he had to listen to a lot of idiotic trade rumors about how he was apparently unneeded. In his own words, he is now "200% better" and ready to get back to business. He played in the first pre-season game, and it was awesome.
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O.J. Mayo

#32; Shooting Guard/Point Guard; AKA Juice
O.J. Mayo didn't have a great year, either. His productivity fell, he lost his starting position, he was suspended for a failed drug test, he got into a fight with Tony Allen over a card-game debt, and he would've been traded away if someone had gotten the paperwork in on time. (Awkward.) He seemed to regain his footing in the playoffs, starting in a few games and becoming a great producer coming off the bench. But the preseason brought another failed trade attempt (more awkward), and while O.J. says everything's good, I have to wonder how many almost-trades someone has to survive before being allowed to punch somebody. I think three would be my limit.

Darrell Arthur

#00; Power Forward/Small Forward
Another one who is good, but I keep forgetting about. He played for Kansas for a couple of years, then was drafted by the Hornets in 2008, then traded to Memphis, where he's been ever since.

Hamed Haddadi

#15; Center
Hamed Haddadi is the tallest player on the Grizzlies roster at 7'2" (an inch taller than Marc), and the first Iranian to play in the NBA. He's been with the Grizzlies since 2008, and has also played with several teams in other countries, and the D-League Dakota Wizards. He'll probably be playing with the Grizzlies this season, but everything beyond that is up in the air. He had some trouble this past year stemming from a "domestic incident", which led to criminal charges, which has led to immigration issues coming back to the U.S. At the moment, he's still working through that, but says he expects to be back in Memphis soon.

Greivis Vasquez

#21; Point Guard/Shooting Guard
I just like Greivis Vasquez. He was one of our picks in the 2010 draft, and he just has the air of a really big and talented kid who's just thrilled out of his mind to be there. His smile says it all. It's pure, contagious excitement.

Xavier Henry
#13; Shooting Guard
Poor Xavier Henry is the most accident-prone player on the Grizzlies roster. He was the other player we picked up in the 2010 draft, but I can't remember ever seeing him play. He missed a big part of his last season (what was supposed to be his rookie year) with a knee injury, and when it looked like he was set for this season, he sprained his ankle in training camp and is expected to miss up to the first four weeks of the season.

Jeremy Pargo
#1; Point Guard; Rookie
A rookie who just got signed in training camp. I haven't seen him play yet outside of the first pre-season game, but that was pretty impressive. I think he'll turn out to be a good contributor. Also, he went to Gonzaga, which I only mention because it's so much fun to say. Try it. Gon-zaga. See?

Josh Selby
#2; Point Guard; Rookie
Our only pick from the 2011 draft (No. 49). Like Pargo, I haven't seen him play outside of the pre-season, and honestly, he's still looking a little rough. But he's a rookie, and the coaches and other players seem to have faith in him, so I'm reserving judgment for the moment.



Head Coach
Lionel Hollins

Lionel Hollions played Point Guard for 5 different NBA teams (Portland Trail-Blazers, Philadelphia 76ers, San Diego Clippers [which apparently existed], Detroit Pistons, Houston Rockets) over 10 years (1975-85) before going into coaching. His coaching career is a little more complicated. He had two runs as an assistant coach at Arizona State, and one for the Phoenix Suns, before becoming the Head Coach the Vancouver Grizzlies in the 1999-2000 season. Then he went to a couple of teams I've never heard of in a league I've never heard of before coming back to the now-Memphis Grizzlies for a short time in 2004. He went back to being an assistant for the 08-09 season for the Milwaukee Bucks (why, I don't know), and finally came back to kick the Grizzlies back into shape in 2009. I hope he'll be here for a long while this time, not just because he's awesome, but because I got tired just typing that.



Michael Heisley
Heisley is an interesting figure. He's a 75-year-old businessman who lives in Chicago, who bought an NBA team in Vancouver in 2000, promised to keep it in Vancouver, and then moved it to Memphis a year later, which was kind of a dick move. Still, I think Heisley gets a bit of a raw deal. He's very careful with team money, which some take as stinginess, but he's always said that he's willing to pay what it takes to win, and he's done just that. If he was all about money, he could have easily lost all of our superstars last year by refusing to pay what was asked, but he didn't. The man is dedicated to making the Grizzlies the best team they can be.
(He's technically only the majority owner, but he's the one who calls the shots and gets the blame.)



Former Grizzlies
Our two most notable former players:

Pau Gasol

#16; Power Forward/Center; Grizzlies time: 2001-2008; Current team: Los Angeles Lakers
The only Laker I actually like (except maybe Derek Fisher). Pau was one of the first players drafted by the Grizzlies when they moved to Memphis, and left in 2008 because he didn't feel that they were contenders (a perfectly valid and correct opinion at the time). In return, Memphis got Kwame Brown (dud), Javaris Crittenton (dud), Aaron McKie (who?), rights to Marc (yay!) and '08 and '10 first-round draft picks. Obviously, it's still a controversial deal, but I feel that it ended up for the best. Despite his difficulties this last year, Pau has done great in L.A. Nor can you ignore how good he was here. Look at the list of records on the Grizzlies Wiki page and count the times you see his name. Yeah.
Also, people need to stop comparing the brothers. (Imagine how awkward that must be for them.) They're different people, different players, and they're both great. Yeah. I said it. WHAT?

Shane Battier

#31; Small Forward/Shooting Guard; Grizzlies time: 2001-2006, 2011; Current team: Miami Heat
Aww, his middle name is Courtney. That poor guy.
Shane Battier is most likely the single most beloved figure in Grizzlies history. You can't dislike him. It's just impossible. He's too nice and awesome. He still loves Memphis and Memphis loves him right back. He was one of the first newbies when the team moved to Memphis, then left to join the Houston Rockets in 2006. After Rudy went down in February and it became clear he was gonna miss significant time, the Grizzlies managed a deal to both dump Hasheem Thabeet (dud) and get Shane back and the city lost its collective shit because OMG SHANE'S BACK THIS IS GONNA BE AWESOME. And it was. He shot the game-winning three-pointer in Game 1 against the Spurs, and then immediately drove to Houston to welcome his newest daughter into the world. (Best Day Ever!) Unfortunately, he became an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season and everyone basically knew he was gonna leave again. He signed with the Heat, and nobody minded because he's Shane and we love him.



The Grizzlies Foundation

The Memphis Grizzlies Charitable Foundation is exactly what it sounds like: a foundation "committed to serving Memphis youth through education and mentoring". The Grizzlies have always put a strong emphasis on serving the community. They have organized team events, and some of the players have their own organizations (like Rudy's Flight 22 Foundation and Shane's Take Charge Foundation). The Grizzlies also built the Grizzlies House, which provides free lodging for families receiving treatment at St. Jude's. The Grizzlies Foundation has (rightfully) been called one of the hardest-working charitable foundations in all of professional sports.



Mottos

The official motto of the 2010-11 playoff run was Believe Memphis. We did. One of Tony's post-game interviews gave us Heart, Grit, Grind, which caught on like fire, to the chagrin of some. (That also led to the Forum being dubbed the Grindhouse, which I think sounds rather awesome.) Blue Collar Team, Blue Collar City was also heard a bit, but I don't know if it was official or not. During the off-season, a large banner hung outside the Forum that read Great Seasons End, Great Cities Endure. I loved it, and it's still my phone's wallpaper. It's recently been replaced with a banner of Zach that reads Time To Grind. Time To Grind and Made In Memphis are the newest official mottos going into this season.


The Future
The Grizzlies have a squad of young, talented, hard-working players and a whole city of fans. We're gonna win it all. It's just a matter of when.

Comments

[gatorgirl1013.livejournal.com]

I love how you put that the one player had been at Gonzaga "because it's fun to say" and not because of the fact that Gonzaga is actually known for being a pretty damn good basketball school...

[kirsdarke.livejournal.com]

I have basketball tunnel vision.

[gatorgirl1013.livejournal.com]

I see that. Lol.