Chapter 58: Basketball Hell
Kobe and the Lakers’ breakup drama turned into a soap opera. In the short term, it seems there won’t be any outcome, but in the long term, both sides’ emotions have been exhausted. The more this is the case, the greater the chance that number 24 leaves LA.
But while they continued to drag things out, another sports drama that had been going on for years and only exploded this summer finally came to an end.
Danny Ainge kept Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, and Rajon Rondo, and used an entire lineup to trade for superstar Kevin Garnett from the Timberwolves. This drawn-out divorce finally ended.
Now it was the other teams’ turn to curse.
Weak teams were fine; after all, they weren’t contending for championships. The Celtics’ Big Three had no direct conflict with them. But strong teams were crying out in agony, especially in the Eastern Conference. Since Jordan retired last century, it had basically been a fish pond, relying entirely on the Pistons to hold up the facade. But no matter how much the Pistons held on, they couldn’t withstand the Western Conference’s talent boom. With their lineup aging and splitting up, as the Eastern Conference’s gatekeeper, the Pistons were crushed single-handedly by LeBron James last year. This was certainly a historic feat, but it also indirectly proved the Eastern Conference’s competitiveness was unbelievably poor.
Now things were better. Although the Eastern Conference’s overall competitiveness was still weak, in this era where talent was evenly distributed across teams and there were no multiple All-Stars teaming up, a sudden emergence of a superstar plus two All-Stars super team instantly tipped the balance of power.
But what did this have to do with the Memphis Grizzlies?
No one thought they had a chance to become contenders in the new season, next season, or even the season after that.
Ever since signing Darko Milicic, the Grizzlies had made no moves, because the owner’s fiscal contraction policy meant management couldn’t pursue any aggressive strategies.
The preseason training camp was about to start, and West returned to Memphis.
Four years ago, when rumors first linked this nearly seventy-year-old legend with the Grizzlies’ president position, the entire basketball world was shocked. On the surface, it made absolutely no sense. Compared to taking over this team, his legendary half-court buzzer-beater in the 1970 NBA Finals seemed like an easy open shot.
The Grizzlies at the time were a complete laughingstock in the league. In seven years since their founding, they had never won more than 23 games in a single season. Management was “famous” for a series of jaw-dropping blunders: In 1997, they sacrificed the 2003 number 2 draft pick to get the fading veteran Otis Thorpe; that same year, they used the number 4 pick on Antonio Daniels—a high draft pick point guard whose failure was as thorough as any in NBA history. Did anyone remember Steve Francis? In 1999, when the Grizzlies selected him with the number 2 pick, this future All-Star burst into tears on the spot and publicly refused to report. Back then, Memphis was the “basketball hell” everyone avoided. Unlike the Raptors, who drafted Vince Carter on the brink of collapse to revitalize their market, they could only helplessly trade Francis away, losing all face.
《Los Angeles Times》 commented on this: “Jerry West has retired; he will enjoy a happy retirement. All rumors about him returning in Memphis are wishful thinking jokes. I mean it—compared to this, Memphis might as well pray for the King of Rock and Roll to rise from the dead.”
A week later, West took the job. He officially became that resurrected King of Rock and Roll.
Since he was the King of Rock and Roll, he had to bear expectations like the King of Rock and Roll. Fans expected him to turn the Grizzlies into a great team like the Lakers. West tried: He brought Hubie Brown out of retirement to establish a defense-first team-building tone, hoping Paul Gasol could dominate in Memphis like he did in Europe. However, none of it escaped the boundaries of ideals. Despite the team racking up 48 wins for three straight seasons, they never won a single playoff game. The sluggish market led to years of losses, and owner Mike Heisley kept demanding budget cuts. After getting his coaching fix, Hubie Brown gracefully spun back to the commentator’s desk. Successor Mike Fratello completely botched everything. With Gasol suffering a broken bone at the 2006 EuroBasket, that 50-win Grizzlies team finally collapsed in the 2006-07 season.
From that point on, West wanted to resign. He saw no hope at all. If this were the Lakers era, such a desperate situation would have been enough to make him poison himself.
Then, he went to watch a Texas Tech University game and discovered that Chinese player. Without a doubt, he saw the sparkle in him. The collapsing Grizzlies fell into the lottery zone, and they drew the number 3 pick, which gave West hope. Everything after that fell into place: Xu Ling’s tryout performance in Memphis was nearly perfect, and West locked this Eastern new star firmly into Memphis’s future blueprint.
Whether this decision was right remained to be proven by time, but this draft certainly kept West in Memphis.
He didn’t submit a resignation. He was still the team’s president.
Unfortunately, only West could see that ray of light in the darkness.
The Grizzlies remained one of the NBA’s worst teams. Their attendance ranked second-to-last in the league, jersey and team merchandise marketing was dismal, and their losses ranked sixth in the league—all while keeping total salary well below the salary cap year after year. As Memphis’s only major league team, their local popularity was far below that of the Memphis University Tigers, and this situation showed no signs of changing in the short term.
As he approached his destination, West slowed the car. The outline of the massive gray building gradually came into view—the FedEx Forum（FedExForum）. This was not only the Grizzlies’ home court but also their training hall; their training center was an auxiliary gymnasium attached to the main arena.
West drove into the exclusive lane, bypassing the glass curtain wall embedded with the team’s blue-and-gold logo at the main entrance, and headed straight to the entrance of the training facilities on the side of the arena.
West had just sat down in his office when Vice President Dick Versace（Dick Versace） came knocking.
“Come in.”
West didn’t look up; he just responded faintly.
Versace walked in, placed several documents on the desk, and began his report in a formulaic tone: “Jerry, a few things you need to know. The league office’s preliminary plan for next season’s revenue sharing has come down, and it’s worse than we expected. Also, the Memphis city council hearing on arena subsidies has been postponed to next month.”
West quickly scanned the documents and just grunted “mm-hmm,” signaling him to continue.
“Sponsor negotiations have hit a stalemate too. They say our media exposure doesn’t meet their minimum requirements.” Versace paused, observing West’s reaction, but the latter’s face showed no ripples.
“Anything else?” West’s tone was flat.
“Arn Tellem wants to know if Rudy Gay’s role will change with Eli’s arrival.”
West finally looked up: “What did you say?”
“We hope Eli and Rudy can become Memphis’s Jordan and Pippen,” Versace replied airtightly. “But who plays Jordan and who becomes Pippen depends on them.”
“Mm, you handled it well.” West said faintly.
Versace nodded slightly, said no more, and turned to leave the office.
The door closed gently. West’s gaze shifted from the documents to the door, as if he could see through it to the vice president’s departing back. His face showed no expression. Despite years of working together, he and Versace had a shallow relationship—at best a normal colleague one. Did this so-called “normal” include normal competition, normal disagreements, normal dislike? Honestly, how many people truly liked every single colleague?
But Versace’s dislike of West had a clear reason: When West’s predecessor stepped down, Versace thought he should become team president, but the owner parachuted in West directly.
So, yeah.
West’s thoughts hadn’t yet pulled away from Versace’s report when his assistant, the beautiful Laura Glankler（Laura Glankler）, walked right in without knocking.
“Mr. West, you have to do something about your players!” Glankler vented as soon as she entered. “They completely refuse to fulfill team obligations!”
The so-called team obligations referred to requiring players to arrive in the team city a few days before training camp officially started, to participate in various community outreach activities and interact with local fans.
When Shane Battier was still on the team, the Grizzlies had a tight relationship with the community. But when West traded Battier for Rudy Gay, that “one for all” spirit vanished from the team.
“Who is it this time?”
“Eli!” Glankler said. “His agent refuses to have Eli participate in preseason community events. They say Memphis has few Asian people, especially East Asians who are rare, and that Eli attending these events ‘won’t produce any effect.’ And they want us to handle another matter.”
“What matter?”
“Eli wore number 1 in college; he wants to continue wearing number 1 here.”
“If I remember correctly,” West pondered briefly, “the current number 1 is Kyle Lowry?”
“Yes.” Glankler nodded.
“He’s a sensible young man. Give him a call and discuss it.” A fleeting, inscrutable smile crossed West’s face. “We should be glad he doesn’t want 22.”
“Then for this year’s community events rep… who should we send?”
“Who was it last year?”
“Mike Miller.”
“And the year before?”
“Also Mike Miller.”
“So why can’t it be Mike Miller again this year?” West said matter-of-factly. “He’s a good guy, and good guys should be used for good things like this.”
Glankler sighed, tacitly accepting West’s arrangement, but the worry didn’t leave her face. “But with Eli… Mr. West, I’m really uneasy. Look at Rudy—he was so humble when he arrived, and now? The locker room can barely contain him. I’m worried this Chinese player will be the same: once he steps through the NBA door, he’ll turn into another selfish bastard…”
“Maybe. Maybe choosing Rudy was a mistake,” West said. “Maybe choosing Eli is another mistake. But maybe years from now, when everyone’s talking about how Eli changed Memphis basketball, you’ll suddenly recall today—recall how you completely misjudged someone.”
That was the last day before the 2007-08 preseason training camp opened. The Grizzlies were still one of the NBA’s notably bad teams. The team’s executives were disheartened and desperate. Except for West, no one believed a turnaround was coming in the next few years. But so what? Even in basketball hell, life went on.
The next day
Training camp opening day
Xu Ling carried a small backpack, followed by Roderick Craig. Thanks to Xu Ling, he had his own role in the Grizzlies, officially called “team liaison.”
Arriving at the training center, the first teammate Xu Ling met was Mike Miller.
He had medium-long brown hair combed back and greeted Xu Ling very friendly: “Eli, great to see you. You know, I watched your buzzer-beater against Florida on YouTube every day for a while. That was the greatest shot I’ve ever seen!”
Xu Ling also wanted to hype Miller up the same way, but in his memory, Miller’s greatest shot was the catch-and-shoot three in the 2013 Finals after his shoe fell off. How was he supposed to say that?
“You’re too kind. I’ve also seen you hit the same kind of shot on TV.”
Hearing this, Miller’s eyes lit up: “Really? You watched my game against the Warriors earlier this year?”
“Mm” Xu Ling kept his tone steady.
“That night I hit nine threes!” Miller gestured excitedly. “Including two super deep ones—of course not as crazy as your half-court, but far enough!”
“Of course I remember. I watched the live broadcast from school,” Xu Ling said without changing expression, tone confident. “The rim looked like the ocean to you.”
Miller burst out laughing and slapped Xu Ling hard on the back: “Rookie, I think we’re gonna get along great!”
“I have that feeling too, but I still have a lot to learn from you.”
Xu Ling smiled too. Miller left a great impression on him. This team didn’t seem as bad as the rumors said.
Basketball hell?
All talk, no substance.
