Grizzlies president talks about return-to-play plan
The NBA’S approval of a 22-team return-to-play plan Thursday got the Grizzlies’ seal of approval.
Team president Jason Wexler said given the complexity of the league’s endeavor to craft a fair proposal, the organization was pleased with it.
“We know how difficult it was for them to try and balance all those competing interests,” Wexler told The Commercial Appeal. “From our perspective, they certainly addressed the success the team had through the first, roughly, 80 percent of the season — 65 games. And, you know, gave that some weight and credit.
“Accordingly, we felt comfortable with what they came up with to move forward.”
The Grizzlies, who occupy the eighth seed in the West, will play eight “seeding games” beginning July 31 at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex near Orlando. Wexler said the team does not have “additional clarity yet” on who their opponents will be nor exact dates and times for those games.
“There’s a whole bunch of stuff that’s going to be coming down the pike over the coming weeks,” Wexler said.
According to multiple reports, teams will play the next eight games on their schedules from the time coronavirus halted the season as long as those opponents are included among the 22team field in Orlando. That means the Grizzlies will face Portland, Utah, San Antonio, Oklahoma City, Milwaukee, New Orleans (twice) and Boston.
Even though there are still some details yet to be ironed out, according to Wexler, simply knowing the plan to return has been approved is a huge lift.
“There was a lot of uncertainty for a long time. We’re so schedule- and calendar-driven in the NBA, just to have dates on the calendar again to look for
how much money that entailed.
Turns out his outside income is more money annually than what the entire university athletic department has with Nike at the moment. Memphis was slated to receive $2.1 million in apparel and equipment courtesy of the five-year, $11.25 million contract extension with Nike that runs through the 2022-23 season.
The wealth Hardaway enjoys independent of his job at Memphis is part of his allure to Tiger faithful. There's an undeniable righteousness that makes it easier to look past his relative inexperience as a coach, and the upand-down first two seasons, and this year's recruiting dip, and assistant coach Mike Miller's recent departure and even that looming NCAA infractions case.
Hardaway can say he isn't coaching for the money. He can say this is about giving back to his alma mater and mentoring young basketball players. And unlike every other college basketball coach who says something similar, there's tangible proof he means it.
There is $3 million in outside income that he'd be getting whether he coached at Memphis or not to back up what he says.
This is largely a blessing for Memphis, that it could get a coach so intriguing and popular during a moment in time when the school had to pay its previous coach, Tubby Smith, nearly $10 million to go away.
It can also be a curse because a coach who needs you less than you need him might be more willing to take risks, for better or worse. A coach who needs you less than you need him might be harder to corral.
It's even harder to fire a coach who's meant so much to the program's history, both in the past and the present. Ask anyone involved in the end of Larry Finch's tenure as head coach about that.
But to suggest Hardaway's job security is in question because the past six months or so haven't gone as planned, or that he's being questioned at all, would be to ignore reality.
It would ignore how much money he's made for
Memphis these past two years. It would ignore that he took a significant discount in his initial three-year contract with Memphis, which will pay him $1.9 million this season and $4.8 million overall before incentives.
It would ignore that he could be doing any number of things with his life but chose to coach middle school, then high school and grassroots basketball, and now coaches for the university he loves in the city loves, all on the relative cheap.
It would ignore that he doesn't need to worry about Memphis extending his contract because it almost certainly will, regardless of how this coming season plays out.
It would ignore that Hardaway isn't just another college basketball coach. Not here anyways.
You can reach Commercial Appeal columnist Mark Giannotto via email at mgiannotto@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter: @mgiannotto