Marc Gasol, Zach Randolph and Tony Allen performed collectively for seven seasons on the “Grit n’ Grind” Memphis Grizzlies. After a brief delay, Allen’s jersey will hanging alongside his teammates in March.
Allen made the All-Defensive Crew in six of his seven seasons with the Grizzlies, a interval the place the crew made the playoffs yearly, reaching the convention finals in 2012-13. Together with Mike Conley, the trio of Gasol, Randolph and Allen was the core of the crew, enjoying a defensive-minded model predicated on toughness throughout a time when the NBA was embracing the three-point period.
The period was often known as “Grit n’ Grind” after a 2011 sport the place Allen shut down the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder’s Kevin Durant. Earlier than the primary query of his postgame interview, Allen stated, “All coronary heart. Grit. Grind.” From then on, the Grizzlies’ motto was “Grit n’ Grind,” with Allen the dwelling embodiment of that spirit, often known as “The Grindfather.”
It is uncommon {that a} participant who averaged simply 8.9 factors per sport throughout his time with a crew will get his jersey retired. However Allen was a uncommon type of participant, one whose identification wasn’t based mostly on scoring, or any numbers in any respect, besides maybe steals per sport. He was pushed by shutting down the opposite crew’s finest participant with bodily, suffocating protection. Kobe Bryant known as Allen “the most effective defender I ever confronted” and even wrote that on a pair of shoes he gifted to Allen.
Allen’s jerseys would have gone up earlier, however the former participant was charged for his participation in a $5M medical fraud rip-off, the place 18 former NBA gamers used pretend invoices to get funds from the NBA’s Well being and Welfare Profit Plan. Final summer time, Allen pleaded guilty to the costs towards him and was sentenced to time served, primarily as a result of he returned a lot of the cash earlier than being arrested.
Now that the Grizzlies waited out the outcomes of Allen’s prison case, they are going forward with retiring his jersey on March 15. He’ll be the third Grizzly in crew historical past to be so honored, however Conley is a lock to develop into the fourth every time his lengthy profession ends.
Memphis followers can lastly honor the Grindfather.
