What Do We Care? We're Disconnected

Michael Heisley said he was feeling more energized about the team and was going to get more involved in the operations and then attended about one game from January to the end of the season. The Grizzlies had an interim coach that was the laughing stock of the league, a highly compensated individual who wanted to be traded and a team with more ‘injuries’ than any two teams in the league but Heisley still couldn’t make it to a game. The fans were never given a reason for this.

What do we care? We’re disconnected.

The Memphis local owners wanted to buy the team from Heisley but apparently didn’t want to enter into a bidding war with Heisley using their offer as leverage to get others to pay more for the franchise. Heisley refused to accept those terms and refused to discuss the situation with the media or the fans.

What do we care? We’re disconnected.

At the end of the season it was announced that West was retiring on June 30. This was to allow him to make the draft pick, pick a new coach and a replacement before retiring. Why in the world the team would want to allow the outgoing GM to make all of these decisions? What’s more the team didn’t come forth and tell us what they were looking for in a GM, a coach or really the draft. Not one press conference or Chalk Talk meeting with season ticket holders to discuss the franchise’s direction or hopes for the future.

What do we care? We’re disconnected.

The press reported that Heisley was interviewing Larry Brown and Kiki Vandeweghe. Upon hearing the news was released Heisley stated that he wasn’t going to conduct the hiring process in the press. He wasn’t going to talk about who he was interviewing or why. He wasn’t going to announce what he wanted in the new GM, Coach or VP of Operations. Heisley also wasn’t thinking about talking to the fans to explain what his thoughts were on the type of person needed to do the job.

What do we care? We’re disconnected.

The team lost the lottery and not one word came from the Grizzlies front office except Jerry West’s rant that the lottery is a terrible way to punish bad teams. No statement on how the team was going to move forward after the disappointment. No comment on the players that should be available at the fourth spot. Not a single comment at all. The fans were left in the dark about how this outcome affected the team and its future plans.

What do we care? We’re disconnected.

The team hired a man with no experience as a head coach without knowing who his boss will be on July 1st. He talked glowingly of the players Memphis has under contract but then stated he didn’t know what style his team would play until he got to know his players better. He then left for Spain to talk to the highest paid player on the team to massage his concerns? How he would do that without knowing what style of play the team was going to play or how the teammates perform would be a good question that hasn’t been asked.

What do we care? We’re disconnected.

All through this period the Memphis Commercial Appeal’s beat writer on the Grizzlies has been criticized for not reporting certain stories like the summer league games, player injuries and player criticisms of the team. All the while he has a morning radio show where daily he talks about how much he dislikes the team and the way they do things.

What do we care? We’re disconnected.

Now that the lottery is set and the deepest draft in recent history is staring the team in the face the Grizzlies announced that they will concentrate on only their single draft pick and that while they will be bringing in players to work out the workouts will be closed to the media, closed to the public and there will not be any discussions about the workouts.

Guess what. We don’t care. We’re disconnected.

I can’t help thinking back on the Grizzlies comments about being unsure of why the team has disconnected with the fans. I always thought it was because the team didn’t understand the Memphis mentality. They didn’t understand that what works by the Great Lake in Chicago and the beaches of Los Angeles may not translate well to the cotton fields of Memphis. Memphis has always been a community that relied on contact and personal interaction. We are a society of meeting for backyard barbeques more than disco dance halls and sports bars. We don’t feel that knowing your neighbors and what they are doing is nosy and intrusive. It shows we care. We extend the family from the house to neighborhood and to the city far more than people do in other parts of the country. Sure there is still a lot of gossip but when people need help the communication network gets the message out fast and people come running.

So why hasn’t Memphis come running to help the Grizzlies? Has this first taste of real big city action already numbed us to indifference like it has in so many other places around the nation? Simply put we have been told and shown that the Grizzlies don’t want us poking our noses in their business. Get the door slammed in your face enough times and eventually you stop caring. If Heisley and the Grizzlies front office don’t want Memphians to be concerned and get irritated when the fans ask questions then don’t act surprised or upset when the fans stop asking and stop caring and stop coming to games. Want to know why the fans are disconnected? Because you told the fans you don’t want us to be connected.

So why should we care?