Gasol’s return didn’t feel right with few fans
Marc Gasol had considered how this homecoming would go. Didn't we all just as soon as the trade was announced?
For nearly 700 days, ever since Feb. 5, 2019, that last night inside Fedexforum when Gasol didn't play but briefly emerged from the locker room for one last acknowledgement from the Memphis crowd, the thought always lingered inside him, just as it did for all of us. “When am I going to play Memphis?” It didn't happen those first few months he was gone, and it didn't happen as planned last year because the NBA season suddenly stopped in March.
It didn't happen at Fedexforum until Sunday night in the middle of a pandemic, a moment that simultaneously reinforced the everlasting bond between Gasol and Memphis, and the long-lasting buzzkill it is to be playing these games, and commemorating these milestones, with only a select few allowed to witness them in-person. This isn't what anyone imagined.
“In your mind,” Gasol said, “the stands also are full.”
‘Sport is not sport without fans’
Fedexforum never felt emptier the past few weeks than it did Sunday when the Los Angeles Lakers pulled away late to beat the Grizzlies, 108-94.
It didn't feel joyous like opening night during the 2018-19 season, when Tony Allen played his first game back in Memphis.
It didn't feel heartwarming like it did before Zach Randolph's first game back, when he greeted Fedexforum fans and employees like a politician working the handshake line.
It didn't feel symbolic like it did during Mike Conley's first game back last season, when the franchise's proverbial torch was passed to Ja Morant in front of a national television audience.
It just didn't feel right without fans there to start what would have normally been a star-studded week of NBA basketball in Memphis.
Lebron James, Anthony Davis and the defending NBA champions are here in Memphis for four straight days, including another game against the Grizzlies Tuesday night. Has James ever spent that many days in a row in Memphis? Will he ever again? Then Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and the Brooklyn Nets come to town to play at Fedexforum Friday night.
The Grizzlies, meanwhile, debuted their throwback alternate jerseys Sunday, hearkening back 20 years to celebrate the arrival of the franchise in Memphis.
These games would be sellouts in a non-pandemic world. The arena would be full of Lakers jerseys, Grizzlies jerseys, James jerseys and, for this partic
ular game, old Gasol Memphis jerseys.
Gasol was already here in 2001 when Memphis finally got a major professional sports team, after the entire Gasol family moved to Memphis once the Grizzlies drafted older brother, Pau. So leave it to Marc, after receiving four stitches above his left eye, to put Sunday's melancholy reminder of all this virus has taken from us into perspective.
“It makes it easier when nobody's up there,” he said, “but at the same time it makes it a little less special because the people are what made the journey here in Memphis unique, and it's been special to me. When you play for a team and for a community that is so close to the team, you become one of them. You become tied. You have the same identity and you represent them everywhere you go.”
That, right there, is the power of professional sports in a place like Memphis. That's why it's so hard to see its power muted at the moment. To see Gasol wave to a smattering of people instead of a throng of Memphians welcoming him back and cheering all he accomplished.
For this game, unlike the first two home games, the Grizzlies allowed up to 74 fans to sit courtside (provided they tested negative for COVID-19, per NBA rules). Some friends and family of the team were also permitted to sit in the lower bowl. That comforted even basketball's biggest star.
“To even come in the arena, to see a sprinkle of fans, it's a great feeling,” James said. “Sport is not sport without fans.”
What Gasol's tribute video was missing
The Grizzlies aren't the Grizzlies without the fans Gasol helped cultivate. The hope is Morant and Jaren Jackson Jr. will have that same kinship with the city, and the same sense of ownership, that Gasol and the Core Four did.
So it wasn't nothing to see them on the bench Sunday, as engaged as if they weren't injured while the Grizzlies kept it close with the Lakers until James took over in the fourth quarter.
Unfortunately, with Morant and
Jackson and Justise Winslow and De'anthony Melton all sidelined, this version of the Grizzlies is a fitting tribute to the group that played at The Pyramid 20 years ago. They're feisty and endearing but ultimately over-matched.
They hardly resemble the team Gasol left at the 2019 trade deadline. Only Dillon Brooks, Kyle Anderson and Jackson actually played with him in Memphis.
Still, these homecomings are a charming tradition in the NBA. They provide a rare glimpse into the soul of a player, a rare moment of raw emotion, and a rare chance to examine in real time the legacy left behind.
Gasol couldn't see all the people he wanted to see and couldn't have them at the game, due to the NBA'S COVID-19 protocols. Instead, he went to the house he still owns here, only to discover the smoke detectors were going off and needed new batteries.
The Grizzlies nonetheless had a tribute video ready during a timeout in the first quarter, right after Gasol hit one of those whirling fadeaway jumpers from the elbow that's all pivot and arc, a shot he probably hit thousands of times from that very spot in Fedexforum.
The entire Lakers bench – James included – sat there transfixed, watching all the highlights and images of those 11 years Gasol and the Core Four transformed what Grizzlies basketball meant to Memphis.
Gasol said his favorite part was the clips featuring him interacting with other Memphians, especially the patients at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and Le Bonheur Children's Hospital.
“Being part of the community, to me, was the most important thing,” he added.
That connection is the most important thing missing for all of us right now. Perhaps never more so than just as soon as the video ended, and “Thank you, Marc,” came across the screen, and the ovation we all imagined couldn't happen.
“I just hope when we get our fans back, Marc can get another one,” James said. “I really hope they re-show that video again when the fans come back here.”
Count on it, Lebron.
You can reach Commercial Appeal columnist Mark Giannotto via email at mgiannotto@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter: @mgiannotto