Grizzlies fans deserve some kind of plan
Memphis Grizzlies General Manager Chris Wallace emerged from an elevator and walked into a lobby full of reporters at Fedexforum Friday afternoon, and I almost felt bad for him.
Here he was, nearly 24 hours after trading away Marc Gasol, nearly 24 hours after another pillar of the Core Four he helped create had been dismantled, and now he had to take all the bullets for a rudderless organization whose dysfunction goes well beyond him. But then he started talking. Then he said things like, “I can’t tell you what the team will look like next year … but I’m very excited about our future, and I think our fans should be as well.”
And then, a few minutes later, he said this: “You’re always looking far ahead in this business. It’s not just this upcoming trade deadline or this draft. You’re looking years down the road at all times with your planning.”
And then, I didn’t feel sorry for him at all, not after how utterly hypocritical those two statements sounded.
I just felt sorry for Grizzlies fans. Because they deserve so much better than this.
They deserve an owner who doesn’t use his embattled general manager as a human shield.
Who actually shows his face in public in Memphis and doesn’t treat its NBA team like an expensive hobby or a discarded toy he likes to play with from time to time.
They deserve a general manager with a vision for how to put this franchise back together, and one who’s empowered to execute it.
Who doesn’t use a 19-year-old rookie as a human shield to deflect from the fact that he’s the face for all the failed draft picks and ill-advised deals that have left the Grizzlies in the NBA’S version of hell.
Because right now, the only real plan this franchise has goes like this: Don’t be one of the worst eight teams in the NBA this year. That’s it.
Welcome to Memphis, where championships take a back seat to conveying draft picks. Not quite as catchy as Grit ‘N Grind, is it?
So yes, the Grizzlies must get rid of Wallace. They should hire someone completely unaffiliated with this current regime and clean house within their basketball operations department.
Not just because the current front office is bad at their jobs, although it appears that they might be.
Rather, it’s because they’re now the symbols of a leadership vacuum created by an absentee owner more than the actual symptom for why this franchise failed so miserably to transition into a new era in recent years.
For all the angst around town over why Wallace is still employed, he’s likely more of a general manager in name only at this point. He’s just the one who gets the blame, and the blame needs to spread all the way to the highest levels of this organization.
Can you hear that in Taiwan or Silicon Valley or wherever you are, Robert Pera? I sure hope so.
It’s time to wipe the slate clean and build from the ground floor. For a billionaire who left Apple and built Ubiquiti Networks from scratch, he seems averse to doing the same thing with his NBA team.
But he shouldn't be. Not when there's no quick fix to the problems facing the Grizzlies.
Because as I walked around Fedexforum in recent weeks and spoke to season ticket holders, their disenchantment was obvious.
If the Grizzlies aren’t careful, if they don’t make significant changes, they’ll lose everything they gained in this community during that wonderful run with ZBO, Tony, Mike and Marc.
This apathy was there for all to see Tuesday night, when Mike Conley thought he could be playing his final game with the Grizzlies, and the crowd gave Gasol a standing ovation when he came out to the bench one last time.
Despite all the glowing tributes to their accomplishments in Memphis, despite the fact all of Memphis knew this could be the last chance they get to see them play together before the trade deadline, only half the Fedexforum stands were full.
Everyone there — Conley, Gasol, the fans — they deserve better than that.
You can reach Commercial Appeal columnist Mark Giannotto via email at mgiannotto@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter: @mgiannotto