When the Grizzlies completed their move from Vancouver to Memphis in 2001, the idea for the relocation was larger than just “one market didn’t like the team as much, this one will”. It also wasn’t all about money - Memphis, Tennessee is by most measures the smallest market in the NBA. While tax breaks and building permits may have been part of the thought process, it was just that - part.
Another part? Just how much the city - a basketball-loving space as proven by decades of love for the Memphis Tigers - would benefit from having the team. For more than a century the city of Memphis had its highs and lows, but a lot of lows - mostly economic and social in nature. There is no greater example of that than Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination in the city as he came to support a sanitation worker’s strike in 1968.
So it’s fitting then that the franchise’s brightest and best day of the year every year in on Dr. King Day itself. While winning the game is nice (as Jaren Jackson Jr. and company did yesterday after an impressive close out in the 4th quarter), just like the Grizzlies’ reason for existing in Memphis, the game is just part of the story.
The team every year participates in a service project to not just honor the words of Dr. King, but the deeds as well. Most sports franchises have charitable wings and programs associated with them, but in Memphis the Grizzlies are city-specific in the best way. They have mentoring programs, and education programs, and find ways to help people where it is needed most. The ties that bind the city and their Grizzlies have become more and more interconnected as the years have gone on - this is a great example of that.
In the wake of King’s death, the Lorraine Motel where he was shot became the National Civil Rights Museum. The Grizzlies players and coaches tour the museum every year, and from veterans of the experience like Jackson Jr. and Ja Morant to rookies Zach Edey and Jaylen Wells it is clearly an impactful experience. From the exact spot where King was slain to the artifacts and first hand accounts throughout the Civil Rights Movement, the connection to the past is powerful.
But the Grizzlies organization connects past and present on Dr. King Day as well. The Sports Legacy Awards, a partnership between the museum and the Grizzlies, honors members of the Black community that embody the intersection of sport and the movement. This year’s honorees - Cheryl Miller, Amar’e Stoudamire, and Tommie Smith - toured the museum. They then spoke at a symposium about their experiences and the work that still must be done.
The works does indeed continue - for Memphis, their Grizzlies, and our country at large. But the Memphis Grizzlies franchise on Martin Luther King Jr. Day embodies the best of what that work has done, and can do, for all of us as we strive to meet our nation’s call to form a more perfect union.
The Grizzlies beat the Timberwolves. But yesterday and every Dr. King day, the real winner is Memphis and the pursuit of a larger Dream.
