Yesterday, Grantland.com, the ESPN-affiliated online magazine presided over by sports media star Bill Simmons, put up a two-part podcast featuring Simmons, ESPN NBA broadcast partner Jalen Rose, and their Grantland colleague Dave Jacoby.
It was a typically rambling, entertaining gabfest, and with Rose and Simmons having just spent a few days in Memphis where they were part of the broadcast crew for Games 3 and 4 of the Western Conference Finals, their take on the city was a big topic.
Simmons and Rose seemed to have a terrific time in Memphis. They raved about Gus’ Fried Chicken and Central Barbecue. About the scene on Beale Street. About the rickety downtown trolley. About the friendliness and spirit of the people. About the colorfulness of the Grizzlies’ players. And about the authenticity of the relationship between the team and city. In a burst of irrational exuberance, Rose even suggested Memphis would top his impromptu “Black Guy City Power Rankings.”
It was great.
But they also paid respects to what they both called the “Lorraine Hotel” (it’s “motel”) and what Rose referred to as “the MLK museum” (it’s the National Civil Rights Museum). And that’s where it got dicey for a few seconds, with Simmons straining for a linkage between the history and the sporting event he’d witnessed:
“I didn’t realize the effect [the MLK assassination] had on that city…I think from people we talk to and stuff we’ve read, the shooting kind of sets the tone with how the city thinks about stuff. We were at Game 3. Great crowd, they fall behind and the whole crowd got tense. They were like, ‘Oh no, something bad is going to happen.’ And it starts from that shooting.”
Yikes, right?
