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THE COMPETITIVENESS
The story of Mike Conley’s competitive fire begins with a loss that wasn’t even his.
Mike was not even 10 years old when his father pulled out an old video recording of a track and field meet he had participated in at Arkansas, his alma mater. Everyone knew Conley Sr. was a big-time athlete; he won the gold medal in triple jump at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. But Dad wanted to make sure his son knew he could run, too.
In the videotape, Conley Sr. runs the 200-meter dash against a loaded field that included Kirk Baptiste, who won the silver medal in the event at the 1984 Olympics. Conley Sr. finished second, pausing the tape to soak in what he assumed would be an awe-struck reaction from his son.
Tears rained down instead.
“He was boohooing and crying because I lost,” Conley Sr. said. “He just bawled and cried. There was no taking second in his vocabulary.”
Friends and family say Conley’s relentlessly competitive nature provides an unexpected contradiction to the quiet, reserved demeanor he possesses away from activities in which there are winners and losers. Whether in basketball, golf, bowling or video games Conley will do anything he can to win. His genuine smile and good manners are only applicable before and after.
The “complete 180” of Conley’s personality stunned Danny Peters, a former college teammate, during an early season scrimmage at OSU. Matta had the freshmen play against the upperclassmen, and the rookies ran the veterans off the court. Peters was floored when a typically stoic Conley engaged in celebratory trash talk.
“I remember the younger group kicking (butt),” Peters said. “And they were in the locker room talking smack afterward and that was like whoa — that’s a different type of Mike. I had never seen that before.”
Conley is just as ruthless on the golf course, where he and former OSU teammate Terwilliger play 15 or 20 times each summer in Columbus. The battles are so fierce and so heated that caddies often ask how much money is on the line. The answer is always none; pride is the ultimate prize.
What makes Conley’s competitiveness unusual is his uncanny ability to back it up. He won Amateur Athletic Union national titles, he won high school state titles, he reached the Final Four in college and, last season, he guided the Grizzlies to the Western Conference f inals. He boasts a single-digit handicap in golf, and that’s after he changed his swing from right-handed to lefthanded. When he and his sister, Sydney, spend time together, they compete for best dressed.
“Whoever was on Mike’s team you already knew was going to win,” Oden said. “… He’s been winning for his whole life.”
THE LEGACY
The story of Mike Conley’s legacy almost began in Phoenix.
It was the spring of 2007, and Steve Kerr was a few weeks from being named general manager of the Suns, a team for which he was working as a consultant. A trade with the Hawks gave Phoenix a chance at a lottery pick, so Kerr and the front office were busy scouting players in case the pick fell into their hands.
Their search kept returning to one player: Mike Conley.
“We were definitely looking at Conley as a potential replacement for Steve Nash,” Kerr said. “We liked him a lot.”
The pick, which was top- t hree protected, ended up staying with Atlanta after the Hawks won the No. 3 overall pick in the draft lottery. They selected Al Horford, and Memphis took Conley one pick later.
Ever since, Kerr has watched a raw, skinny teenager blossom into a player he says is without question among the top 10 point guards in the league. The uncertainties that hampered Conley before the draft — Is he tall enough? Is he strong enough? Can he shoot the ball well enough? — have all been erased, and in their place is the budding star of a franchise.
“It wouldn’t be a stretch at all for me to rank him ahead of (John) Wall or (Rajon) Rondo,” Kerr said, “… I think Conley is right in the mix with all those guys.”
Seven years ago he might have been headed to Phoenix, replacing a legend in Nash. Instead Conley came to Memphis, where he worked diligently to hone his craft and win over a fan base that, at least for a while, seemed unwilling to lend him time to develop.
So as Conley sank a 3-pointer with a minute to go on April 14, eliminating those same Suns from playoff contention while clinching a berth for the Grizzlies, the Mike Conley story asked a brand-new question: Can you possibly picture Memphis without him?