Month: February 2015

Categories
News News Blog

Zeke Logan: 1965-2015

Memphis radio personality Zeke Logan has died. The announcement was made on WXMX 98.1 by his wife and children at 2:00 today. Logan was known for his dry humor and gentle satire. He was the perfect foil to his on-air partner, Drake Hall, for more than two decades, first on Rock 103, then, since 2004 on 98.1.

Logan, whose real name was David Millar, was diagnosed with cancer nearly three months ago and had not been on air for several weeks. On February 4th, Hall announced to his listeners that “it [wasn’t] going well,” and asked them to pray for Logan and his family.

After the brief announcement, the station played “Jungleland” by Bruce Springsteen.

Zeke’s family has set up a site to help them pay medical expenses.

Categories
Music Music Blog

Freakin’ Weekend Six

For the past six years, the collective known as Nashville’s Dead has thrown the pre-SXSW party of the year with their annual Freakin’ Weekend event. The festival boasts some of the biggest names in garage rock (The Black Lips, Jacuzzi Boys and Ty Segall have all played), and also allows some of Nashville’s best local bands to strut their stuff.

The three day, multi-venue festival is a perfect opportunity for Memphians to get acquainted with the burgeoning music scene in Nashville, and with pop-up shops, food trucks and after parties, there’s a lot to take in. Nashville’s Dead recently announced the initial lineup, with a second slew of bands presumably coming soon. Check out the insane video of Jeff The Brotherhood playing Freakin Weekend IV (and the trippy Black Lips footage) to get acquainted with the freak show, then make plans for a road trip to the capital city March 12-14. Oh yeah, if you act fast the three day pass is only $40.00. As always, the festival is dedicated to Nashville’s Dead founder Ben Todd, who passed away in 2013 at the age of 24. 

Freakin’ Weekend Six (2)

Freakin’ Weekend Six

Categories
News News Blog

One Beale Could Open in 2018

CREDIT: Hnedak Bobo Group Inc.

Hnedak Bobo Group Inc.

The proposed towers of the One Beale project.

Construction could start on One Beale as soon as the beginning of next year and open about 30 months after that, development officials told members of the Downtown Memphis Commission Tuesday morning.

One Beale is a proposed $150 million development on the corner of Beale Street and Riverside Drive. The plan was revealed in the media last week.

It consists of two towers — one, a 30-story, 280-room apartment building at the corner of Beale and Riverside and the other, a 22-story, 300-room hotel built just south of the apartment building.

The development also has an office and conference building and an 800-space parking garage. Restaurants and bars will be located inside the apartment and hotel towers. Retail space will be available at sites over the entire campus.

If built, the towers will transform the Memphis skyline, according to Chase Carlilse, director of real estate and development for Carlisle Corp., the company behind One Beale.

“We are all aware that we’re at the mouth of the Mississippi River and it’s one of our most attractive features,” Carlisle said. “(Memphis Mayor A C Wharton) has been pretty public with his desire to see us connecting the river to the rest of our city, not just Beale Street.

“Today our site would be the missing front teeth of our city. We want to take the opportunity to fill in those
pearly whites.”

[pdf-1]

Carlisle said construction on the $150 million project could begin as early as the first three months of 2016 and would take about 24 months-30 months to build. That would push a grand opening of One Beale to sometime in 2018.

About 1,500 jobs would be created in the construction phase of the project, paying about $72 million in wages during that time. Once One Beale is open, about 200-300 full-time jobs would be created, Carlisle said.

The company is in talks with an “internationally branded flag hotel” to occupy the south tower, Carlisle said. But the deal isn’t done and he did not want to give the name of the hotel company.

The presentation to the Downtown Memphis Commission’s Center City Revenue Finance Corporation (CCRFC) was for information purposes only. Carlisle said he wanted to begin to introduce the project around town and to get public feedback on it, noting he will soon begin meetings with Downtown neighborhood groups.

However, Carlisle Corp. will likely come back to the Downtown Memphis Commission (DMC) for public support of the project. The DMC website said it like this:

“As design plans, development costs and further financial analyses are being finalized, the development team and DMC staff will continue working together to determine the terms of a proposed private-public partnership necessary to make this a financially viable project,” the DMC website said. “The developer and DMC staff expect to present such terms to the CCRFC at a later date.”

The proposal sparked only a few questions about One Beale Tuesday but it certainly seemed to impress CCRFC chairman Luke Yancy.

“That’s awesome,” Yancy said at the end of Carlisle’s presentation. “I’m at a loss for words.”

Categories
Beyond the Arc Sports

Socrates and the Grizzlies Fan: On Lionel

CREDIT: Larry Kuzniewski

As previously shared on this here internet website, a new treasure trove of the writings of Plato was recently discovered, containing several heretofore unknown dialogues between Socrates and a group of basketball fans. In this installment, as yet untitled, Socrates seems to be discussing the feelings of Griz fans about the Grizzlies’ first-ever home game against a team coached by former Griz coach Lionel Hollins. It could take scholars years to discern the true meaning of this text, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth sharing here.

Two men are talking to Socrates about the Grizzlies’ home game against the Brooklyn Nets, who are coached by one Lionel Hollins. They are indentified in a portion of the text which has been lost to the ages, and thus are referred to as Fan #1 and Fan #2.

Larry Kuzniewski

F1: I just think that scumbag Levien never should have fired him in the first place.

F2: He wasn’t fired—I’m just not going to address calling Levien a scumbag&mdsah;he wasn’t fired, they just didn’t renew his contract.

F1: It’s the same thing, and you know it.

S: Is it the same thing, though?

F1: It is. They replaced him with a new coach, didn’t they?

S: To be fired implies a job performance so poor that they had to let him go. It would seem that simply not being offered a contract extension could indicate someting else.

F2: Exactly. I’ve been saying this ever since it happened—that they didn’t fire him. He was greedy. He wanted too many years and too much money.

S: From where did you get this information?

F2: I, well, I got it from the internet.

[jump]

S: From someone whose reputation you trust?

F2: From Twitter.

F1: All those media people on Twitter hate Lionel so much. They couldn’t wait for him to get out of town.

S: If that were true, why do you think that would be the case?

F1: Because they’re all a bunch of crybabies. They think Lionel was mean to them, because he wouldn’t give them a bunch of softball press conference answers. They just want somebody who’s gonna lay down and make it easy to write their stories.

F2: Oh, whatever. The guy was a jerk! There’s no need to be so hostile when people who are just doing their job ask you a question.

F1: Sure there is! All those media people, they didn’t want him to be the coach. They didn’t like him. All they ever did was complain about how he needed to shut up and do his job.

F2: He did need to shut up and do his job.

S: What do you mean when you say that? What was his job?

F2: His job was to win basketball games.

F1: Which he did.

F2: Yeah but they were so ugly at it. They couldn’t ever score.

F1: Scored enough to get to the Western Conference Finals.

F2: Only after they traded away Rudy Gay so that the offense had to flow through Z-Bo. Everybody knows he didn’t like Tony Allen, the best defensive player in the league.

S: Are you sure that he didn’t like him? Or do you think maybe he didn’t trust him in certain situations—situations where Tony’s recklessness could’ve hurt the team.

F1: He is reckless. He needed Coach Hollins to rein him in.

F2: They were so much better when Tony played more than 25 minutes, though. They still are. It’s not rocket science. Tony has to play for the Grizzlies to get anywhere.

S: Did he not play Tony Allen enough, though? How much farther do you think the team could’ve gone if Tony Allen played even more minutes than he already did?

F1: This is exactly what I’m saying, Socrates.

S: And do you not admit that Tony Allen is a much superior player to Xavier Henry?

F2: Oh, man, Socrates, you just owned that guy.

F1: That seems like a cop-out, though. Everybody knows that was stupid. But that was Tony’s first year. He was still an unknown quantity then—I mean he played really well for Boston in the Finals, but, like, you just didn’t know he was going to be that good.

Larry Kuzniewski

S: It seems that we’re litigating how to feel about his return to Memphis based on starting lineup decisions he made in 2010. Is that the right course of action?

F2: It’s just an example of what I’m talking about. The guy was way too stubborn about what players he liked and what players he didn’t—there’s a reason he sent so many backup point guards packing.

S: What reason do you think that is?

F2: Because he doesn’t like anybody. All he does is tear people apart when they make mistakes, and sit them back on the bench for a week.

F1: He had nobody to work with. Jeremy Pargo? Josh Selby? Washed-up Gilbert Arenas? Which one of those guys was supposed to be the one who stuck?

F2: He destroyed O.J. Mayo. O.J. Mayo was an incredible player under Iavaroni.

S: I do not think that is a name we should use on these hallowed grounds. Let us banish the memory of Iavaroni.

F2: Fair enough.

F1: O.J. Mayo would’ve flamed out anyway, man. He just doesn’t have the mental toughness he needs to make it as an NBA starter.

F2: Do we know that, though? How would we even know? He spent so much time in the doghouse, and then wanting to be a point guard—remember when Lionel made him play Summer League? When he made him play backup point guard in the playoffs?

S: I appreciate the catharsis of this conversation, but I don’t think these are the issues that will cause people to be conflicted about Lionel Hollins when he returns to Memphis.

F1: Exactly. These people are just mad. They need something to be mad about because Lionel never played nice with them.

F2: I don’t know why you think there’s some sort of vendetta here. I don’t understand this at all.

F1: Because the media didn’t like Lionel and they turned everybody against him. He wasn’t even mad at the front office, he just answered questions.

S: Clearly this is something about which you both still feel very passionately. What will your reaction be when Lionel is announced as head coach of the Nets on Tuesday night?

Larry Kuzniewski

F1: I’ll cheer for him just like I did when he was the head coach of the Grizzlies. I wish he were still the head coach of the Grizzlies. He made these guys who they are. He taught them how to win. They wouldn’t be where they are today if it hadn’t been for Lionel Hollins.

F2: I’ll clap and then I’ll hope that he loses. He was the right coach for the Grizzlies when they were young and inexperienced and he could boss them around, but that passed, and that’s why he’s not here anymore. He never developed anybody other than Mike Conley, and you could say that Conley would’ve been good no matter what.

S: Both of those things are unknowable, though. We don’t know how Mike Conley would’ve turned out if not for Hollins, although it’s fair to say that Hollins had a big role in shaping him as a player.

F1: See? I told you.

S: But we also don’t know how well the Grizzlies would’ve done with a different coach. We’ll never know the extent to which Hollins taught the team how to win, even if the players say he did. We just won’t ever know the answer to that question.

F2: Which is why it’s a good thing they got rid of him.

F1: So you do admit they got rid of him.

F2: You know what I mean.

S: So why then the need to all have the same response?

F1: Because he deserves better.

F2: Because I’m right.

S: I think you see what I’m driving at.

F1: You’re saying that there’s more than one way to look at it—more than one way to respond, and that all of these responses are appropriate.

S: While it’s important to remember that rightly or wrongly, Hollins is the most successful coach in Grizzlies history. And that no matter how complicated your feelings about it—or, really, even if your feelings are uncomplicated contempt—that’s still a fact that must be dealt with in any accounting of the situation.

F2: Well I might clap politely, but I want him to lose.

F1: And I want him to win by 100.

S: You do realize he brings Brook Lopez and Deron Williams off the bench, right?

F1: Wait, what?

Categories
Politics Politics Beat Blog

Commission Chairman Justin Ford Says He’ll Run for Mayor

CREDIT: JB

JB

Justin Ford

The Memphis mayoral race, just as many expected, and just as some — existing candidates included — were hoping, is filling up. The latest to declare a candidacy is Shelby County Commission chairman Justin Ford, who had promised the media he would reveal his decision to them on February 9. And, came Monday, February 9, Ford did just that.

In a conversation with reporters during breaks in Monday’s Commission meeting at the County Building, Ford said he’d been thinking about a mayoral race for four or five years (or about the time he was first elected to the Commission in 2010), and, after paying brief homage to the Ford family’s commitment to public service, made special note that his father, former Councilman, Commissioner, and interim County Mayor Joe Ford, was able to raise “half a million dollars” in a race against then Mayor Willie Herenton in 1999.

“It won’t be [any] different this time,” avowed Ford, who said he would run on issues of economic development, health care, education, and public safety.

Asked about the fact that the mayoral field was fast multiplying, Commissioner Ford said, “The more the merrier. When you look at any type of race, especially in this democracy, in the city of Memphis, we’re accustomed to change. The more people in the race the better. They bring different perspectives [for] the opportunity for people to make the decision whether or not they want some change.”

Victory, he said, could come to “whoever has a resounding message, goes door to door, and also raises the right amount of money.”

Ford said he was aware that both Mayor A C Wharton and Councilman Jim Strickland, a declared mayoral candidate, had already raised prodigious amounts of money. “I’ve seen their financial disclosures,” he said.

As an incumbent, Wharton had a head start, Ford acknowledged. “Incumbents are hard to beat; so at the end of the day, if you don’t have a focus and have a real plan, you might not be successful.” But, he noted, “We’re a long, long way from the finish line.” And a few months, for that matter, before petitions for the October election became available in April.

Other candidates already declared are Wharton, Strickland, former Commissioner James Harvey, and former UM athlete Detric Golden. Considered likely to enter the race are Councilman Harold Collins, New Olivet Baptist Church pastor and former School Board member Kenneth Whalum Jr., and Memphis Police Association president Mike Williams.

Categories
News News Blog

South Side Middle Parents Speak Out at School Consolidation Meeting

Supporters of South Side Middle gathered in the school’s auditorium on Monday night to voice opposition to a plan to consolidate the school with Riverview Middle.

In the 2015-2016 school year, South Side Middle School students may be bussed to Riverview Middle, leaving another massive, empty school building in the heart of a South Memphis neighborhood. Just down the street from South Side sits the vacant Longview Middle School, which Memphis City Schools closed in 2007.

The reason for the proposed consolidation with Riverview is South Side’s low academic achievement. South Side falls in the bottom five percent of county schools, which means it’s susceptible for state Achievement School District (ASD) takeover. To prevent such a takeover in the future, the Shelby County Schools (SCS) administration is recommending moving the students at South Side into Riverview, an SCS iZone school.

“South Side is on the ASD short list. And South Side will have to be in the iZone or the ASD. Those are the only options we have on the table. It just makes more sense to educate these children through the iZone,” said SCS Superintendent Dorsey Hopson.

When the ASD selects a school, they send in a charter school organization to run the facility with the goal of moving the school from the bottom five percent to the top 25 percent. When the ASD comes in, the school falls out of the SCS district.  And because of state law, when the ASD wants a school on the SCS priority list, there’s nothing SCS can do to stop them from taking it over.

A couple years ago, SCS launched it’s own program, iZone, to help move some of those priority schools into higher achievement status so they wouldn’t be susceptible to state takeover. The iZone schools only hire teachers with Teacher Effectiveness Measure scores of three or higher, and the principals have more autonomy, including the ability to hire all of the school’s staff. Since the iZone’s start in 2012, all 13 iZone schools have shown improvement, and six of them have already moved from the bottom five percent to the top 25 percent.

But at a public meeting at South Side on Monday night, parents and students of South Side spoke out against the plan to merge with Riverview. Many spoke about their fears of moving children into what they say is gang territory around Riverview, home of the Rollin 90s gang. Several students even told the SCS board members in attendance that they were worried about being mugged or even raped while walking from their homes near South Side to the Riverview neighborhood.

“Who here wants their children in a gang? Who here wants their child being raped?” asked one South Side Middle student, as parents and students cheered her on.

Others spoke about how closing the school could destroy the community and devalue surrounding homes. SCS has not released any plans yet for what would happen to the building if the school is closed.

More than a couple times, SCS board member Teresa Jones admonished speakers for going over their two-minute time limit at the microphone. And at one point, board members cut off a young girl who was reading a prepared statement about why she wanted to save her school. That brought angry cries from the audience, and from that point on, the meeting remained contentious, with many speakers refusing to stop talking into the microphone after their two-minute warning.

The consolidation proposal has not yet been approved by the SCS board. They’ll also be considering consolidating Lincoln Elementary with A.B. Hill Elementary. There is a community meeting at Lincoln (1566 S. Orleans) on Thursday, February 12th at 6 p.m.

Categories
Calling the Bluff Music

Wave Chapelle Celebrates Black History Month with New EP

In recognition of Black History Month, Wave Chapelle has released a four-song EP entitled New Black History.

The CMG representative uses the effort to address civil rights, reflect on legendary black activists, and also shed some light on personal struggles.

Stream New Black History below. 

Wave Chapelle Celebrates Black History Month with New EP

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Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Guess Where I’m Eating Contest 57

Mmmm…. 

The first person to correctly ID the dish and where I’m eating wins a fabulous prize. 

To enter, submit your answer to me via email at ellis@memphisflyer.com.

The answer to GWIE 56 contest is the ravioli at Ciao Bella, and the winner is … Debra Blundell!

Categories
From My Seat Sports

The Memphis Open: A Tennis Revival?

CREDIT: Larry Kuzniewski

“When this job opportunity came up, I knew nothing about Memphis. Nada.”

Larry Kuzniewski

Erin Mazurek

Erin Mazurek — the new general manager of the Memphis Open — may well personify a renaissance for professional tennis in Memphis. Hired last fall by the Unites States Tennis Association to oversee the newly named Memphis Open, Mazurek arrived in Memphis with more knowledge of a two-line pass than a crosscourt backhand. She spent five years, you see, as director of private event sales for the Detroit Red Wings, among the most powerful brands in the National Hockey League. Her task with the Red Wings was maximizing that powerful brand name for revenue-generating events when the hockey team was not playing at Joe Louis Arena. She wasn’t selling hockey players. She was instead creating a buzz-worthy atmosphere, an environment where people wanted (and maybe needed) to be seen.

The Racquet Club of Memphis and its longtime tournament are in desperate need of a buzz booster.

There was a time when a person holding Mazurek’s job merely had to announce the players coming to Memphis and lines would form for tickets. Bjorn Borg won the first championship in 1977. Jimmy Connors won four titles between 1978 and 1984. Other Memphis champions: John McEnroe (1980), Stefan Edberg (1985 and 1987), Andre Agassi (1988), Ivan Lendl (1991), Pete Sampras (1996). All seven of those tennis legends finished at least one year atop the world rankings.

But since the turn of the century — the dawn of the Roger Federer Era, you might say — fields at the Racquet Club have been decidedly less buzz-worthy. Andy Roddick — the tournament’s top seed every year from 2003 to 2011 — was an annual draw, a rare American ranked in the top 10, and won three championship here (2002, 2009, and 2011). Other recent champs, though, were names you didn’t see or hear during the second week of coverage at Wimbledon: Joachim Johansson, Kenneth Carlsen, Steve Darcis, Jurgen Melzer. While Federer and fellow stars Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, and Andy Murray played most of their tennis overseas, the Racquet Club was left to sell what amounted to ATP leftovers. The tournament’s fortunes seemed to bottom out in 2013 when it was played without a title sponsor (the U.S. National Indoor) for the first time in more than two decades.

If you listen to Mazurek, though, pro tennis in Memphis is on the verge of a bounce-back much like the fuzzy spheres fans will follow this week. “I think [the previous owners] lost some of the pulse on the community,” she says. “This tournament has to be sold from the grassroots up. It’s as much a community event as it is a professional sports-and-entertainment function. You have to remember there are people at the core, relationships.

“We need more pre-match entertainment,” emphasizes Mazurek. “More sizzle to the show. Let’s face it: There are people who go to a Grizzlies game and barely pay attention to what’s happening on the court. I’m that person who loves the atmosphere, the music, the promotions, the branding. If we’re doing our job right, this will be a festival for tennis fans and casual fans.”

An early sign of better days ahead was the announcement last month that ServiceMaster has signed on as the tournament’s presenting sponsor (not the same as a title sponsor, but significant). Japan’s Kei Nishikori — the world’s fifth-ranked player and a finalist at last year’s U.S. Open — is back to defend his title. America’s top-ranked player, John Isner (No. 18) and South Africa’s Kevin Anderson (No. 15) will each be contending for his first Memphis title. Federer’s absence, like Nadal’s, has become a fact of life for the Memphis tournament, and so be it. Let’s give the new blood at the Racquet Club a chance to wow us. World-class tennis comes in many shapes and sizes. This week, its home is Memphis, Tennessee.

Categories
Beyond the Arc Sports

Next Day Notes: Grizzlies 94, Hawks 88

CREDIT: Larry Kuzniewski

Larry Kuzniewski

Tony Allen’s trail of chaos and destruction was a big reason the Grizzlies beat the Atlanta Hawks Sunday night.

In what might have been the Tony Allen Game to end all Tony Allen Games (more on that later, in as many Vines as I can possibly think of to cram into this post), the Grizzlies knocked off the Eastern-Conference-leading Atlanta Hawks, 94–88, in a Sunday matinee that was even more in the mud (oh, the ever-present mud in which the Grizzlies find themselves—whether we want them there or not) than observers expected it to be.

It was a close game between two very, very good teams. The Hawks were coming off a win over the Golden State Warriors in Atlanta on Friday night, and spent the last 48 hours being The Best Team In The League, until they rolled into Memphis. I don’t think tonight’s game settled any kind of debate about which team was better (the Grizzlies’ win means they split the season series with the Hawks 1–1, with the home team winning both games) but if it all works out so that the Hawks and Grizzlies meet each other again in a 7-game series in June, I don’t think anyone would complain.

Tony Allen, though: Tony Allen was everywhere, creating chaos on both ends of the floor (most of it good), getting his hands on the basketball when no one expected it (least of all the hapless Atlanta players who had to stand around and watch the Tony Allen First Down Dance), being really smart about when to cut to the basket for a rebound whenever his defender helped off of him too far. Allen’s rebounding alone kept the Griz afloat during a second-quarter scoring drought, taking advantage of the Hawks’ lackluster defensive rebound to generate new possessions at critical moments.

And really, after the game, coach Dave Joerger talked a little bit about how coming off the bench makes Allen’s job even tougher than starting: he plays with more guys, and he has to guard more guys (and the lineup switching was all over the place last night on both sides, as both coaches tried to out-Popovich each other). So last night’s TA performance was one for the ages, and his disruptive defense (though he certainly wasn’t the only one playing disruptive defense) was a difference maker in a big win over a marquee opponent.

Game Notes

➭ Zach Randolph got his double-double despite being in a tough paint battle (in which the refs were most definitely “letting them play”) with Al Horford and Paul Millsap. Atlanta is one of the few teams in the league with a frontcourt big enough and tough enough to go toe-to-toe with the Griz, and last night the Griz came out on top. Marc Gasol got in on the double-double action, too, but he was clearly a focus of the Atlanta defense, and when the team’s scoring dried up at times he was trying to do too much, trying to carry the team on his back against an opponent very determined not to let that happen. In the end, both guys had good nights but not great ones, and that turned out to be what the Griz needed from them.

[jump]

Larry Kuzniewski

➭ Mike Conley hit some huge shots last night, deciding that he didn’t care what the situation was or how much pressure was involved. He showed a great deal of, well, fortitude and continued his reign as Clutch Conley on Sunday. Matched up against Jeff Teague, another of the league’s great point guards who ends up terminally underrated because of the glut of exceptional floor generals in the NBA right now, Conley had 21 points, 6 assists, 3 rebounds and 3 steals—but 9 of those 21 came in the 9:36 Conley played in the 4th quarter, including two big (huge, really) three-pointers he hit to keep the Grizzlies ever so slightly ahead of the Hawks down the stretch.

Clutch Conley has been a major factor for the Grizzlies this year. The bigger the game, the bigger the moment, the more important the shot, the more Mike Conley wants to take it. Back during the Bad Old Days right around the Rudy Gay trade, the question used as shorthand for “the Griz never should have traded that guy” was “Who’s going to take the last shot now?” And while some people have thought (and still think) that it’s Zach Randolph, to me, Conley was then and is now that guy: he’s the one with icewater in his veins who will do whatever he needs to do to get that last bucket, whether it’s take a 3, make a floater in the lane, or even get pummeled under the basket and earn a trip to the free throw line. Conley is that guy, and he’s becoming more and more the team’s last-shot gunner with each game like the one he had last night.

➭ Tony Allen will rightfully get a lot of spotlight today for the way he played defense last night, but there’s another Grizzly who is doing masterful work on defense right now, especially in isolation situations: Nick Calathes. Calathes has always been a little bit “thefty,” with his court vision and basketball IQ giving him a pretty high steal rate, but this season, now that he’s getting regular minutes, his all-around defense has been pretty spectacular. It doesn’t hurt that Calathes is 6’6″ and big enough to guard guys that Conley and Beno Udrih can’t.

It bears watching to see whether Calathes’ defensive performance can really be sustained over the whole stretch run from All-Star to playoffs, but he’s not doing anything he hasn’t done before—he’s just able to string a lot of these great plays together in a way he couldn’t before, probably just another sign/symptom of adjusting to the NBA game after playing in Europe for so long. At any rate, he’s doing really great stuff, and it’s fun to watch.

Larry Kuzniewski

➭ Jeff Green was not very good, disappearing for most of the game (going 3–10 from the floor) and playing mediocre-at-best defense. But one or two of the shots he did manage to hit were big ones, preserving the Grizzlies’ momentum or slowing Atlanta’s. That’s the kind of performance that Green is going to turn in on some nights; people who watched Green play before he got to Memphis already knew that. He’s not a shooter, by any stretch, so when his path to the basket is taken away there’s not really much for him to do. But, that said, because of FT’s Green had more points in the 4th (5, to be precise) than any Griz but Conley, and (though I don’t put much if any stock in this stat) was a +7 for the night in +/-. Green continues to be a mixed bag, but one that holds a few more treats than tricks.

➭ Been saying this a lot lately, so I’ll keep it brief: Kosta Koufos was great and should be playing more than 15 minutes.

➭ Last but not least, a note of personal defeat. My 10-month-old daughter (who is not named “Tayshauna,” contrary to certain recent radio reports) was a participant in last night’s Infie 500 baby race during halftime. We were thrilled that she was chosen to be a contestant, and spent a lot of time practicing at home to see which toy would be the one most likely to entice her to crawl from the free throw line to half court. Alas, when the time came, she was overwhelmed by the crowd and the noise and decided instead to stare at the (admittedly very shiny) floor and refuse to move at all. Only half the field actually left the starting line, and that’s not counting the one kid who crawled about three feet and turned around and came back. It was not our best family sports outing performance-wise, but it was still pretty hilarious. And, also, if you missed the Jumbotron video of Grizz (the mascot) running a baby-race gambling operation and getting caught, hopefully that ends up on YouTube, because it was hilarious. [1]

Tweet of the Night

If I’m going to say last night was an all-time Tony Allen game, the tweet of the night (which is really a Vine of the night) has to be Tony Allen related, right? It only seems fair.

Up Next

Tuesday night Lionel Hollins and the Nets roll into town for the first-ever home game where Hollins is the visiting coach—which is interesting, of course, and I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it (and certain other newspapers in town will probably have a lot more to say about it). Then Wednesday night the Griz are in Oklahoma City to play the Thunder on a SEGABABA right before the All-Star break, a potential schedule loss if I ever heard of one.

  1. I will say that people very close to the team have won the race two years in a row now: first sideline reporter Rob Fischer’s daughter and now the daughter of in-arena emcee Joey Thorsen. Contrary to Twitter opinion last night, I don’t think the baby race is rigged, but: clearly kids who are used to being in the arena and hearing the crowd have a big advantage over those who haven’t and are kinda overwhelmed by the whole thing. All that is to say that if your child is in the race, take him or her to a game or two before the actual race so he or she will be used to the crowd noise.  ↩