Sixth Man in Memphis

The Memphis Commercial Appeal first reported on Monday, November the 2^nd, that Allen Iverson is already unhappy with his nonstarting role and said that he’s “not a sixth man”. Iverson, who missed the preseason and the first couple games of the season because of a hamstring injury, played 18 minutes on his debut with the Grizzlies on Monday against the Kings which they lost, played 28 minutes on the loss against the Warriors on Wednesday and played 22 minutes yesterday on the loss against the Lakers, all these games on the road. AI has constantly complained throughout the week and after each one of those games about being a sixth man and even said that nobody told him that Memphis would be on a rebuilding process.

Questioned by the newspaper about the statements by Iverson, Grizzlies’ owner Michael Heisley did the right thing and said that Coach Lionel Hollins will be the one to take the decisions about who starts and called Iverson’s comments “inappropriate”. He was also seen in the locker room before the game in Southern California shaking hands with Iverson and could be heard chatting about plans for a meeting with Iverson. In all this mess, Coach Hollins put his foot down and said that although he understands Iverson’s unhappiness about his minutes, he has no intention about changing his starting backcourt right now.

The thing about all this mess is that the Memphis Grizzlies deserve everything that has happened with them so far. Time and time again they teach how not to run a franchise. Nothing of this is new, Iverson always behaved this way his entire career; he was never the guy that thinks about what is better for the team. Last season in Detroit, he didn’t accept coming off the bench on a team that had championship caliber players, why on Earth management and the coaching staff thought he would accept being the backup of a talented but unproven Mike Conley. Iverson was never a good match with this team because he holds the ball too long and when he penetrates, he goes to basket and that decreases the touches for OJ Mayo and Rudy Gay who should be the faces of the franchise.

Iverson also has his share of blame in all of this too. He said during the interview that nobody told him that the franchise would be on a rebuilding process. Couldn’t he figure this out by himself? This is a team that won 22 games last season whose main star is going to his second year on the league, all role players are young, unproven and have about the same age, plus don’t forget about the coach on his first year with the team. Everybody knows Gisele Bundchen Brady is hot, nobody needs to say that. Off course Memphis is on a rebuilding process, it doesn’t take a genius to realize that. Iverson is the one who put himself in this position when he decided to go to Memphis because they were the only team willing to pay him the mid-level exception (about $5.5 million dollars) and because he thought he could easily start there. What he didn’t expect is that on the middle of all the incompetence, somebody would realize that the best thing for the franchise is to keep developing Conley.

The worst part on all of this is that the Grizzlies are losing focus on what is important for them. The deadline for players drafted in 2oo6 to sign extensions was on Monday and the Grizzlies were unable to get a deal done with Rudy Gay. Apparently, he refused a 5 year $50 million dollar extension. People around the league and on the blogosphere went nuts calling Gay crazy for refusing that kind of money. I personally think that it wasn’t about the money at all. Maybe Gay is one of the few smart players around the league and realizes that this franchise is a mess and if he has a way out next summer, he’ll take it. Also don’t you forget that Iverson is not the only me, me, me guy on the roster. Zach Randolph looks thin and is having a nice start stat wise but tell me what happens a couple months from now when he thinks he already proved everybody wrong and quit on the team.

All this mess sucks because, besides the Oklahoma City Thunder, no other team has as many prospects as this one. Is well documented how much Chris Wallace sucks but this season he may have reached brand new levels. Fan base quit on this team after the Paul Gasol trade, so Wallace pulled the Iverson card on a tentative to bring them back but he forgot about the damage of having an Iverson, a Randolph on the locker room. Gay’s already on his way out and since this franchise keeps going for the losing road; don’t expect the others to stick around for too long.

Check More At: MVN

Mess of the Minutes in Memphis: http://basketballoutsider.wordpress.com/2009/10/21/mess-of-the-minutes-in-memphis/

~ by Rafael Uehara on November 7, 2009.