Tag: Pau Gasol

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Grizz Bash

I wasn’t giving Ja Morant any basketball tips at the Grizz Bash because I don’t know any.

I noticed Colton Rhoads carrying a basketball covered with autographs at the Grizz Bash. He and his girlfriend, Anna Belle George, were among the guests at the St. Jude Children’s Hospital of Memphis fundraiser, which was held January 11th at FedExForum.

The Grizz Bash, which featured games, eats, and music, replaces the Tip-Off Luncheon, where guests also could meet Memphis Grizzlies players.

Rhoads, 22, was collecting autographs from as many Grizzlies players as he could for the heavily-inscribed basketball.

“We counted last night and there’s 85 now,” Colton told me when I called him the next day. “Last one we got was Tyus Jones. Everybody was pretty easy to get except Ja Morant. I feel everybody was trying to go get him.”

But the intrepid Rhoads got him. “He is real shy. He didn’t speak much.”

Collecting autographs from basketball players began with his dad, Brian Rhoads, Colton says. “It started with him when he was a teenager. He always loved basketball. He started off collecting NCAA basketballs.”

His dad, who now has more than 200.autographed basketballs, used to get autographs on one ball, but then he got one player to one ball. “The ones he does have multiple autographs on are team balls. Or players related in some way. Or the coaches.”

The ball Colton had at the Grizz Bash was one of his dad’s basketballs. “But we both put work on it. I have some. We kind of take turns. If I’ll go to an event, I’ll do it. It’s just whoever happens to be there.”

Colton got his first Grizzlies autograph when he was six years old. “I believe the first autograph I got was Pau Gasol for the Grizzlies, the first year they came to Memphis. I was about six. He was really nice. I was a little nervous because he was my favorite player at the time. That was my first introduction with any NBA player. I was meeting an idol.”’

Colton and his dad used to go to the old Tip-Off Luncheon, but, he says that event “always seemed a lot more hectic and it seemed a little more difficult to get to different players before they headed out. They didn’t stay for the whole luncheon.”

He enjoyed the Grizz Bash, which he described as “more of a close-quartered kind of experience. It was easier to interact with them (the players) and play games with them.”

Colton, who is majoring in communications at the University of Memphis, says their collection includes “a lot of the older players like Michael Jordan, Julius Erving, and people like that.” But they’re really trying to get an autograph from Zion Williamson. “He’s a rookie. Just got drafted. So, we’re trying to get after him whenever he comes to Memphis. That will be our opportunity.”

He sees Williamson becoming as big as LeBron James. “They’re saying he’s going to be a real superstar. And we’re trying to get after him before he gets that big. From our experience, whenever stars get big they get the tendency to not sign as much.”

Asked if any players have ever been rude to him, Colton says, “Not many rude ones. But (for some) you kind of sense them not feeling like signing an autograph.”

And then, he says, “Some blatantly ignore you. You call out to them and they just keep walking.”

The Grizzlies used to host “Grizz Gala,” another St. Jude fundraiser, which was in Tunica. I remember Marc Gasol’s size 17 basketball shoes in the silent auction at a Grizz Gala held in January, 2014 at Gold Strike Casino. The event, where guests could mingle and take photos with Gasol, Zach Randolph, Mike Miller, and the other players, featured music by the Memphis Grizzlies House Band.

MIchael Donahue

Colton Rhoads and Anna Belle George with Jaren Jackson Jr. at the Grizz Bash.

Dillon Brooks with a fan at the Grizz Bash

MIchael Donahue

Jonas Valanciunas at the Grizz Bash.

Michael Donahue

Brandon Clarke at Grizz Bash.

Michael Donahue

Jae Crowder at Grizz Bash.

Michael Donahue

Grizz Bash.

Colton Rhoads with his hero, Pau Gasol, who gave him his first Grizzlies autograph.

Marc Gasol with Colton Rhoads.

Brian Rhoads autographed baskeball collection.

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Sports Sports Feature

Griz Lose Big to Hornets; Fans Boo Gasol

CREDIT: ESPN.com

(AP) – Chris Paul had 40 points and nine assists, and the New Orleans Hornets used a third-quarter spurt to beat the Memphis Grizzlies 116-98 on Wednesday night.

Paul shot 17-of-25 from the field, including 5-of-8 from 3-point range, as the Hornets won their third straight. It marked the second-highest point total in Paul’s career. Only his 43 points against the Grizzlies on Dec. 7 was better.

Peja Stojakovic finished with 21 points and David West added 20 for the Hornets, who shot 56 percent.

Rudy Gay and Mike Miller led Memphis with 19 points apiece, while Kyle Lowry finished with 15 on 6-of-8 from the field. Lowry also had eight assists.

Pau Gasol, the Grizzlies’ second-leading scorer, finished with eight points, ending a streak of 81 games in double figures. That was the third-highest in the league behind Carmelo Anthony and Ray Allen .

Paul helped the Hornets run the lead to as many as 18 in the third quarter, scoring 16 points and handing out four assists in the period.

The Hornets eventually extended the lead to 20 points in the fourth.

Gasol, who seemed to settle for outside shots most of the night rather than challenge Tyson Chandler, was booed on several occasions when he didn’t take the ball to the basket. Chandler finished with 13 rebounds and 12 points, while Gasol managed only six shots.

New Orleans led 52-50 at the break behind 15 points from Paul and 12 by West. Miller scored 15 in the tight half, when both teams shot 50 percent.

Paul helped the Hornets break away in the third period, scoring nine points and assisting on two more baskets before the midway point of the quarter, keying an early 15-5 run. Stojakovic added 10 points to help New Orleans carry a 86-73 lead into the final period.

Notes: Grizzlies G Mike Conley returned to full contact practice Tuesday night, meaning his return from injury is much closer. The rookie from Ohio State has been out of action since injuring his right shoulder against Dallas on Nov. 17. “You wouldn’t have thought he had a shoulder surgery,” Memphis coach Marc Iavaroni said before Wednesday’s game. “Moving around well. He was quick. He needs to get in better shape, but that will come with play.” Iavaroni wouldn’t give a specific time on the first-round pick’s return. … New Orleans won the two previous games in this year’s series with Memphis in overtime. … West was whistled for a technical late in the first half by Steve Javie after West argued a no-call. Then Iavaroni got called for a tech midway through the third period for arguing with official Marc Davis. The weirdest tech of the night, though, came with just under 3 minutes left when substitution confusion by the Hornets left New Orleans with only four players on the court.

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Sports Sports Feature

Gay and Gasol

Before the Grizzlies moved to Memphis, I lived in St. Paul, Minnesota, where I followed the recently established Minnesota Timberwolves through a transition that is relevant to the current state of the Grizzlies.

I can remember former Wolves coach Flip Saunders saying once that, in basketball, “chemistry” means having a pecking order and having players buy into it.

When Saunders said that, he was reflecting, in part, on an earlier period in Wolves history, when the team underwent a dramatic reordering of its pecking order via the drafting of preps-to-pros pioneer Kevin Garnett, who quickly challenged incumbent frontman Christian Laettner’s status on the team. Laettner bristled at Garnett’s swift elevation and was traded before the end of Garnett’s first season.

That situation in Minnesota isn’t entirely analogous to what’s happening with the Memphis Grizzlies right now: Second-year forward Rudy Gay isn’t a talent of Garnett’s magnitude, while incumbent team star Pau Gasol is both a better player and better teammate than Laettner was.

But make no mistake: This season represents a shift at the top of the team’s pecking order for the first time since Gasol’s unexpected rookie-of-the-year campaign in 2001-’02. Gasol has been the team’s leading scorer every season of his career, but, through 17 games this season, it’s been Gay leading the way. The 21-year-old Gay is leading Gasol in points per game (18.1 to 16.6), minutes per game (34.2 to 33.8), and field-goal attempts per game (14.3 to 12.7). And, fewer than 100 games into his NBA career, Gay is still on a steep upswing.

Unlike in Minnesota, this seems to be a case of Gay joining Gasol rather than jettisoning him. Unselfish and accommodating, perhaps to a fault, Gasol is unlikely to resist sharing leading-man status with Gay the way former teammates Jason Williams, Bonzi Wells, and James Posey resisted playing a supporting role to Gasol. In fact, Gasol’s personality probably makes him better suited to being “1-A” in the pecking order than clear-cut top dog.

Fans have been clamoring for the Grizzlies to add another player as good as or — preferably — better than Gasol. Now that the team finally seems to have that player, the dissatisfaction with Gasol is unabated. It’s as if fans have gotten so accustomed to only having one all-star-caliber player on the roster that they struggle to conceive of a roster with two (or more!).

Of course, Gasol hasn’t helped with the longest stretch of mediocre play in his career. A couple of recent Commercial Appeal articles have done a good job of describing how new coach Marc Iavaroni’s more free-flowing offense has served to reduce Gasol’s previously central role in the offense: how the team doesn’t revolve around Gasol’s post play anymore and how this impacts the numbers Gasol is putting up.

But this analysis understates how poor Gasol’s recent play has been. The shrinkage in his per-game scoring and rebounding averages aren’t as important as his declining efficiency. Gasol is still getting plenty of touches in the post or on the move; he just isn’t converting them at the same rate he has throughout his career. Gasol no longer appears hurt, but I suspect his ankle and back problems from preseason are having a lingering effect — a confluence of poor conditioning, confidence, and timing seem to be holding Gasol back more than the new offense.

Unless Gasol is traded — and that doesn’t seem likely — it’s imperative that the team’s two best players play well and play well together.

The Grizzlies’ recent two-game homestand was encouraging in this regard: Half of Gasol’s eight assists came on passes to Gay. Meanwhile, Gay was more deferential to Gasol without sacrificing his own production. The ability of Gay and Gasol to maximize and mesh their respective talents could be the story of the season, and their ability — or inability — to do this may be the key to whether the current core of this Grizzlies team is one to build on or eventually tear apart.

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News

Pau Gasol Poops!

Well, this gives “running the floor” a whole new dimension.

Sure, some of our Christmas traditions are lousy. We’ve got gaudy and tacky decorations, that stupid fa-la-la-la a song, and retail “Christmas creep.” But in certain regions of Spain, they’ve got us beat. It seems their traditional nativity scene includes a small figurine of a defecating peasant.

This hallowed tradition has been going on since the 17th century, but recently the pooping peasant has begun to be replaced by shitting celebrities. And Memphis just happens to have a local celebrity who hails from Spain.

Yep. Everybody poops. Even Pau Gasol. There’s more about this at Deadspin.com, including a link to pictures of pooping Popes, George Bush, and other luminaries. Spain. What a country!

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News

Pau Gasol’s New Play-Station Ad

Watch the Grizzlies’ Pau Gasol fall through the clouds, bounce off a blimp, land on a bi-plane, and fall some more.

It’s all part of a new Spanish ad for PlayStation games systems. Pau doesn’t say anything, but he screams a lot.

You can watch it here.

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News The Fly-By

Fly on the Wall

Hard Again

Three 6 Mafia isn’t getting a lot of love for their new MTV reality show Adventures in HollyHood. “I guess everyone has to have a moment like this, a real soul-destroying glimpse at a favorite artist losing the plot and making terrible decisions for even worse reasons,” Tom Breihan wrote in an article for The Village Voice titled “Let’s Never Mention the Three 6 Mafia Reality Show Again.”

“Since their shocking Oscar win last year, they’ve grabbed every crass mass-exposure opportunity that’s come their way, popping up on My Super Sweet 16 and Studio 60 and every other TV show that would have them,” Breihan continued on his way to declaring HollyHood a modern-day Beverly Hillbillies. “But it’s still tough for me to describe just how much despair and humiliation I felt watching last night’s premiere. … If you’ve ever admired anything about this group, do yourself a favor and forget that it exists.”

Writing for online site Blogcritics, Memphis media critic Richard Thompson was even less kind. “You’re just supposed to sit there jaw-dropped … and just listen to the music, [and] see these ‘gangstas’ sambos dance, go crazy and pimp themselves — for Hollywood.” Yowch!

Pau Wow

According to AOL Sports, Pau Gasol really, really, really wants out of Memphis. “What I’m not going to do is stay on a team that’s just in the hands of God,” Gasol told the Spanish news media. “I have to think about another direction and playing for another team.” Clearly Pau is under a fairly common delusion: He’s not the first person to mistake Jerry West for God.

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Sports Sports Feature

Don’t Do It

CREDIT: Larry Kuzniewski

Question: What’s been the most under-acknowledged story about the Memphis Grizzlies this season?

Answer: Pau Gasol’s improvement.

No, really — I mean it.

Gasol certainly hasn’t done himself any favors. From the obnoxious tendency to deliver very different messages to the Spanish media than he does to the local press to his wavering on-court enthusiasm and at-times terrible defensive regressions to his ill-conceived trade request, Gasol’s wounds this season are mostly self-inflicted.

Breaking his foot while playing for his national team this summer fed already lingering resentments and set the stage for a lost season. Losing doesn’t put people in much of a mood to see improvements, especially in those they blame for the losing. And Gasol’s limited minutes coming off the foot injury have kept his per-game averages from being as eye-popping as they might be.

But, however subtle, the advancements in Gasol’s already impressive set of skills have been tangible and significant. Fans (and, more importantly, decision-makers in the front office and ownership box) need to digest them before helping Gasol pack his bags.

To put Gasol’s production in a more helpful context, translate his averages this season (in 33 minutes per game) into the 39.1 minutes he averaged last season. The result: 24 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists, and 2.5 blocks a game.

Gasol’s rebound rate, despite coming off a broken foot, is the best of his career (though still mediocre for a 7-foot center). His shot-blocking rate is the highest of his career. And, most meaningful of all, Gasol’s perimeter shooting is dramatically better.

Gasol is shooting 47 percent on perimeter shots this season after falling under 40 percent every other season of his career. And this improvement doesn’t look like a fluke, because his shooting mechanics seem to have evolved. In the past, Gasol had a tendency to move his left hand off the ball early, resulting in a one-handed, shot-put-like release. Gasol’s form looks more textbook, and he’s been much more confident — less tentative — with the shot.

As a result, Gasol is shooting 57 percent from the floor this season — fifth best in the league — despite taking 54 percent of his shots from the perimeter. To put that in context, none of the four players ahead of Gasol in this category has taken even 40 percent of his shots from outside the paint.

What’s most encouraging is that these improvements are far more likely to carry over into next season than Gasol’s defensive decline. A lack of lateral quickness and bulk will keep Gasol from ever being a quality defender, but his decline from adequate to bad this season seems to be the result of intensity, focus, and team-wide defensive problems. Intensity and focus will be easier to come by in a season where the team is playing for more than ping-pong balls. And the team defense is certain to improve via a combination of personnel changes and solidifying the coaching situation.

Given that Gasol is a 26-year-old 7-footer who is already an All-Star caliber player, isn’t a locker-room or off-court problem, and is showing signs of making a significant leap forward, the Grizzlies should be very reticent about dealing him.

The most reasonable trades rumored for Gasol are ones that would combine a quality young player (Chicago’s Ben Gordon and Luol Deng have been the most prominently mentioned), a draft pick, and a cap-room creating contract.

A deal of this kind could work out for the Grizzlies, but the contingencies are daunting. Any key player the Grizzlies acquire is likely to be less valuable than Gasol and eligible for free agency before Gasol’s contract runs out. Draft picks and cap room are dependent on making good picks and smart signings, and if history shows anything, it’s that the draft is a crap shoot and free agency comes with more risks than rewards. What if that pick/cap-room combo turns into Troy Bell and Brian Cardinal?

Unless financial considerations are dictating a bad basketball decision, the best course for the Grizzlies is to resist Gasol’s trade request and wait until the league’s draft lottery is conducted this summer. At that point, with a good idea of what they’re getting in the draft, the Grizzlies’ organization should ask itself two questions: Is Pau Gasol a good fit for the future, and has Gasol changed his mind about wanting to be traded? If the answer to either question is no, then get the best deal you can. The prospect of combining Gasol with elite center prospect Greg Oden trumps anything a trade right now can bring. Closing off that potential future could be a huge mistake.