Posted 8/16 at 6:11 PM
Pete Pranica is the Grizzlies television play-by-play announcer. He and Sean Tuohy make up the broadcast team that hosts Grizzlies Tonight! before each home game.
There’s been a lot of summertime conversation about the Grizzlies—moves made and not made as well as scrutiny of the franchise’s finances. What often gets overlooked is the Grizzlies’ real value to Memphis.
For those of you who didn’t make it to the Lionel Hollins “Bowling for Backpacks” event this past Saturday at Winchester Bowl, you missed a great event. Plenty of star power—Penny Hardaway, Mike Conley, Josh Pastner, mayors A.C. Wharton and Myron Lowry as well as jazz artist Ben Tankard and local comedian Lester Bibbs—and a lot of fun.
When I wasn’t co-hosting with Lester or rolling the rock, I was doing some people-watching. Across twenty-something lanes of bowling, I saw young and old, black and white, well-off and less well-off. It was, in short, a cross-section of Memphis life.
So much time and effort has been devoted to putting the Grizzlies’ personnel moves under a microscope this summer. Debate rages whether majority owner Michael Heisley is more concerned with the bottom line than with the left-hand column of the standings. That the Grizzlies cut back on their scouting staff (which still remains robust and on par with most other NBA franchises) only intensified the debate.
Measuring the value of the franchise financially is only one barometer.
And it may not be the most important one.
I come from northern Wisconsin. Growing up, the only African Americans I was even remotely aware of were on the Green Bay Packer roster. My high school had exactly one African American student. And he was the nephew of a Packer.
In college at Notre Dame, there was a little more integration, though not much at the time. (I should point out that Notre Dame has come a long way in ethnic diversity). Some of my best friends there weren’t white. Not that I cared. Quality people are quality people, color be damned.
Now in Memphis, one of the most gratifying moments each year is the Martin Luther King celebration game. In a city that is forever connected with Dr. King’s assassination, FedExForum teems with that same cross-section of Memphis that I saw Saturday and for three hours no one cares about race so much as supporting the hometown team.
It is a hometown team that has striven mightily to be a force for good in Memphis. Whether it be mentoring, the Grizzlies House at St. Jude, character education or support of Stax Music Academy or Memphis Athletic Ministries, the Grizzlies have shed a little light into the lives of the less-fortunate and those who aspire to improve their life. But even over and above the hours and the dollars that the Grizzlies, their staff, players and fans have pumped into the lifeblood of the city, the Grizzlies do something else—they can bring us together just as Lionel’s event did on Saturday.
I believe with all my heart that the Grizzlies’ greatest value in Memphis is in bringing all of us—white, African American, Latino, Asian, Native American and all ethnic groups—to a place where we can pull together to help others and to enjoy a few hours of thrilling entertainment.
No, it doesn’t show up on a balance sheet.
But it still counts.
Posted 8/16 at 6:11 PM
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