Marc Gasol Complained To Reporter When Grizzlies Almost Traded Mike Conley

“There were times we came close to trading Mike, because his development was so slow, and thank goodness we didn’t,” Grizzlies general manager Chris Wallace admitted to NBA.com’s Ian Thomsen in his recent profile on Grizzlies point guard Mike Conley. We already told you about Conley’s uniquely tight bond with backcourt partner Tony Allen, but Spanish center Marc Gasol told Thomsen he actually called Memphis Commercial Appeal beat writer Ronald Tillery to complain when the Grizz almost traded Conley to the Bucks earlier in Conley’s career.

The tightness between Conley and Allen is special, but the Grizzlies point guard gelled with Gasol almost instantly when the big man came over from Spain, and they’ve sat next to each other on the team plane since Gasol joined the team in the fall of 2008. They’ve also developed a nice repoire on the court as well, with Conley assisting on a team-high 90 of Gasol’s field goals this season. Those buckets often come from a pick-and-roll they’ve mastered in their time together:

Perhaps that’s why the loyal Gasol stupidly decided to talk with the Commercial Appeal‘s Tillery when he heard the Grizzlies might trade Conley to the Bucks during Gasol’s rookie year:

When Gasol heard that the Grizzlies were on the verge of trading Conley to the Milwaukee Bucks, he reached out to Ron Tillery, who covered the team for the Memphis Commercial Appeal.

“I had no idea what I was doing,” recalled Gasol. “I said, ‘Write this down: We cannot trade Mike Conley. He is the one guy who actually cares about the team, that actually is trying to play the right way.’ Well, supposedly a rookie is not supposed to do that. So I got a call from the owner, I got a call from everybody. And rightfully so. Rightfully so.

“But I felt like I had to protect the one guy who I felt actually cared about winning and losing — because a lot of people say, ‘I want to win.’ But are you going to do the right things it takes to win? Do you want to win on your own terms, or do you want to win on the team’s terms?”

That’s incredible. If you’re wondering about tight relationships among the Grizzlies players, this anecdote from Gasol is a good example. No wonder Memphis has been so successful despite a cramped, slow-it-down attack (they’re fourth to last in pace this season and usually toil among the bottom five) that flies in the face of what most NBA teams are trying to do on offense these days.

Can you imagine a rookie calling the team’s beat writer when he hears another young player might get traded? Some franchises would have just dealt Gasol AND Conley if this had transpired, but thankfully for them — as Wallace mentions — they didn’t; although, it’s clear Gasol got chewed out by management when they learned what he did.

Right now, we’re convinced the Grizzlies would lay down in traffic for one another, and those are the types of teammates who often get to pour champagne on one another while extending the Larry O’Brien Trophy above their heads.

It’s much too early to make such a prognostiation about a Memphis team with some glaring weaknesses, but they’re still currently the No. 3 team in the West and the more we read of Thomsen’s profile on Conley, the more we love what their team’s camaraderie shows: teammates who play for one another usually out-perform teams who simply play with one another.

(NBA.com; video via NBA. com)

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