Foolish Grizzlies Blew Call On Iverson

You know what NBA basketball fans, I say the Allen Iverson, who, after playing in just one game with Memphis this season, vehemently complained about his lack of playing time (21 minutes) while coming off the bench for a ballclub that won just 28 games last season.

Iverson told the Memphis Commercial-Appeal following that contest, "I had no problems with the hamstring. I had a problem with my butt sitting on that bench for so long."

If the Grizzlies didn’t know about Iverson’s oft-repeated antics beforehand, they certainly know all about them now. However, I say Memphis’ front office personnel and head coach Lionel Hollins would have had to be living under a rock for the better part of the last decade and a half to have not known all about Iverson, one of the most publicized players in league history.

After getting traded from the Detroit Pistons in a sulking fit that ended with him at home, allegedly because of injury issues (yeah right), Iverson actually expanded on the perception that he created throughout his 13-year career that he was a selfish player only concerned with his own personal statistics, no matter how much he says he wants to win.

After enduring a nearly fruitless offseason of trying to find an NBA team that would put up with his self-serving behavior prior to the start of this season, in large part because every GM and head coach in the league knew Iverson would balk at coming off the bench, the Grizzlies decided to sign Iverson to a one-year $3.5 million dollar deal despite the fact that they had two young guards in third-year point guard Mike Conley Jr. and explosive second-year shooting guard O.J. Mayo that need to play on order to grow and fulfill their nearly unlimited potential.

The Grizzlies and head coach Lionel Hollins should have seen what would be coming from a mile away, yet they chose to bring in Iverson, a player that can put the ball in the hole with the greatest scorers of all-time, but is as selfish as any player I’ve witnessed I nearly four decades of watching NBA basketball.

Now, while the Grizzlies are saying that Iverson is just attending to “personal family matters” and will return to the team at some point after his “indefinite leave of absence” I say the handwriting is on the wall and that Iverson never suits up for the Grizzlies again, particularly following Hollins’ no-nonsense comments about the whole Iverson fiasco.

"Man, look, Allen has played 20 minutes in two months," Hollins said. "There is no way we are making a change and going in a different direction. If you want to talk to me about the Memphis Grizzlies as a team, (fine), but there is no way I am standing here and talking about Allen Iverson. Sorry."

"What my frustration is is that I have to talk about Allen Iverson in every setting," Hollins added "I want to talk about the Memphis Grizzlies as a team. And even when Allen was out, I was having to talk about Allen. That is my frustration. I want to talk about the Memphis Grizzlies.

Maybe it’s me NBA fans, but I say the Memphis Grizzlies are as much to blame for this situation as Iverson. Either way, I don’t see it ending very pretty.