The Humbling Of Tony Bradley

It has been called the moment that Memphis truly fell in love with Steven Adams. Fourth quarter of the Grizzlies’ win over the Chicago Bulls and as Ja Morant tried to attack past Tony Bradley, the Bulls big fella deliberately fouled him – sticking out a leg at first and then doubling down by grabbing him. And he continued to grab onto Morant for long enough that Morant lashed out by pushing the ball at his face, instigating things further.

Any time there’s an NBA kerfuffle, the instant reaction is that teammates all rush in. The Memphis bench was up as soon as Bradley’s leg shot out but it was the ball to the face that got the on-court folks all bothered. By that time the Memphis home crowd was up in a roar and the referees were trying to shove people out of the way. Nothing like the confidence of NBA refs to just waltz into the middle of a melee knowing that nobody’s gonna touch them or else there’ll be a lifetime ban forthcoming (and way better than NFL refs who do the same but with whistles screaming and yellow flags flying everywhere, while NHL refs merely let them go at it and MLB just join in).

But as it turned out there was no need for the refs on this occasion because Steven Adams simply picked Tony Bradley up and carried him away. Through his own sheer force – all done with a straight face – he lifted the fella off the ground and walked him to safety, prying him off Ja in the process. Then he gave him a pat on the back for good measure and everyone parted with civility.

For the record, Tony Bradley – a fourth year C/PF in his first season with Chicago after playing for both the Philadelphia 76ers and Oklahoma City Thunder last season having been drafted in the first round by the Utah Jazz in 2017 – is listed by the NBA as standing at 6'10" (2.08m) and weighing 248lb (112kg). That is not a small human being. But he was made to look like a small human being as Kiwi Steve did his Bouncer At The Maccas Playground routine. He put that boy into the Refrigerator Walk...

We’ve seen this trick from Adams in the past. Russell Westbrook was always winding people up with his all-energy style and Adams was constantly there to break up any altercations. It’s one of his many talents. The level headed strong man in the middle of chaos, calmly restoring the peace. One of many such examples...

There are probably way more NBA big men with a Steven Adams Bounced Me story than even Steven Adams himself realises. In fact the yarns run so deep that even his own teammates have them. Jaren Jackson Jr spoke after the game about how Adams did the exact same thing to him once...

JJJ: “Oh wow. Dude, I’ve been seeing that for years, like, way back in the day... it may not be back in the day for y’all but I used to like the Thunder when I was younger. That would be the team that I came up on. Probably weird for y’all. But he was on that team and he would always do that little carry, pick up a dude, and then he did it to me when I first came into the league and I was so mad. I was like, man, that he did it on some funny shit, like just picked me up. And then I saw him do it... but he meant it out there. Like, you’re going for our brother, get off.”

Triple J even tried for a little reciprocation as the Grizz lads celebrated their win at the final buzzer, plus also apparently earlier too while they were reviewing the play (result: flagrant on Bradley, techs on both Bradley and Morant). Putting a bit more effort into this than he’s supposed to but Adams is even bigger than Bradley so a valiant effort all the same...

Meanwhile as everybody else laughed about the incident, Ja Morant was still fuming as he rocked up for his press conference afterwards. His take on the entire incident was basically the hindsight version of ho-ho-hold me back...

“You seen what happened before? He tried to trip me, that ain’t no basketball play. So I reacted and then he was grabbing my jersey and I’m telling him to get off me and he’s still grabbing my jersey. Like for what? I ain’t going for none of that, dog. I don’t do no pushing and shoving either. I’ll let whatever else happens after that happen.”

The telly cameras showed him after the scrap over on the bench mouthing the words “I can fight, I can fight” to himself so you get the idea. Boy wanted to throw hands but it wasn’t quite the time nor the place. Then when one of the journos on the call mentioned Steven Adams’ bodyguard duties this was Ja’s instant response...

“As he should. As he should. Because I’d do the same for him, that’s how I was raised. I mean I can be out there on my own... but pretty sure everybody see who I be having here. Baby’s courtside so it wasn’t worth it.”

Yup, the old ‘if my kid wasn’t watching I’d kick your ass’ scenario. Gotta love Ja Morant. Ultra competitor. Also since we’re going through teammates talking about Steven Adams, gotta add in some Desmond Bane calling Steve-o the “glue to our offence”...

Memphis + Steve: A Love Affair

The Tony Bradley Incident makes for a great meme and a funny video and some classic NBA internet content... but you get the feeling that a moment like this means more to Grizz fans that just its disposable meme quality. That was no joke, that line about how deadlifting TB may have been when that city fully embraced the dude. It was only ever a matter of time, his qualities match up too perfectly with what the Grizzlies have traditionally been about, and now it’s happened. That headline incident. Chris Vernon can explain more...

And he’s not the only one. A heap of Grizzlies fans/media have been making the same point about this being some kind of... almost like an initiation into a club.

See, Memphis has a way of doing things which is unique to the city. This isn’t like Los Angeles or New York, Memphis is a one-team city. No NFL team (though they do have state-mates the Tennessee Titans who play in Nashville). No MLB team or NHL team. They don’t even have an MLS team – Memphis 901 FC plays in the second-tier USL Championship. The Grizzlies therefore are the sole major sporting focus of an entire city.

When Adams was a rookie, he ran into the Grizz at their peak in his debut playoff campaign. Pretty infamously too with the whole incident with Zach Randolph – where Adams getting punched in the face for no reason was perceived as such a crime that Memphians only just forgave him almost a decade later when he was traded to their team.

Those were the Grit ‘n’ Grind Grizzlies – a term coined by All-Defensive first teamer Tony Allen. At the dawn of the three-point era their best player was Marc Gasol, a big man in a shrinking league (albeit a super skilled one.... those skills just didn’t include a three-pointer at that stage). Paired with Zach Randolph. With Tony Allen on the wing. Chuck in a young Mike Conley too. This was a team built upon defence. Built upon ideas of working harder than anyone else, of not cutting corners, of not putting egos before the team. Blue-collar ideals, whether that’s an accurate representation of the city or not... stereotypes are always reductive but you get the idea.

Funny thing about that is the Grizzlies name is actually something they inherited from the Vancouver Grizzlies when the franchise moved to Memphis in 2001. This team that is supposedly so reflective of its city and its nickname is borrowed from a whole other country (though they do have black bears around the Memphis area so, you know, close enough).

The city of Memphis only has a population of about 650-700k people. To be fair the wider counties take that well in excess of a million but yeah compared to some of the so-called big market NBA cities this is most definitely not that. It’s a city and a team with a chip on their shoulder from trying to compete with those whose wealth allows them to cut those corners that the Grizzlies (reputationally) refuse to. It’s also a city with a lot of disparity between the wealthy and the poor. A city with a dark racial history which lingers to this day – coincidentally, this game we’re talking about here occurred on Martin Luther King Day, and it was in Memphis in 1968 that MLK was murdered... hence why the National Civil Rights Museum is in Memphis. It’s also a city of enormous culture. Beale Street. A vast musical legacy. Memphis barbecue. Graceland. The list goes on.

And as it so happens, a lot of those characteristics overlap with Aotearoa sports. The cliche that we have about New Zealand sporting exports is that they’ll be humble and honest, they’ll put the team first, they’ll perform with integrity and complete application. Maybe not the most naturally skilled but they’ll make the absolute most of what they’ve got and will never let you down. Steven Adams is beloved in NZ because he represents that ideal both on and off the court. Now it sounds like the same thing is coming true in Memphis. Damn, man, they’re even putting him on t-shirts.

Jokes For Days

The ‘Rona

Smack bang in the middle of a winning streak, Steven Adams had to step away from the hardwood for a few days. Like so many others in the NBA world he found himself caught up in the Health and Safety Protocols. Adams had been the only Grizz player to play every game to that point and one of only 17 remaining dudes across the entire league not to miss a game this season... but alas no longer.

You know what ‘Health and Safety Protocols’ means. It means he’s had a brush with the dreaded covid. It doesn’t necessarily mean that he has the virus because the same thing applies to players who have been primary contacts of a positive case (note that Grizzlies head coach Taylor Jenkins went into the protocols at a very similar time). For privacy reasons teams don’t tend to specify whether a player has tested positive, though there’s a longer conditioning process before recovered cases can play again so you can often tell by the length of the absence. Not that it matters.

A few weeks back the NBA eased up on the protocols a wee bit. For vaccinated players who are asymptomatic, the minimum isolation period was lowered from seven days to five days – so long as their cycle threshold (CT) remained below a certain point. Adams is vaccinated and missed two games before being upgraded to ‘questionable’ three days later. He still missed that third game and the fourth one too (all wins, the Grizz reaching a franchise record 11-game win streak) but in the fifth returned with a minutes restriction, playing off the bench. Then he was back to his usual self against Chicago next up. Interestingly, the fourth game he was listed as out with a non-covid illness. Whether that was an additional illness or maybe he had a cold and they thought it was covid but it turned out not to be. Eh, who cares. He’s back now. Here’s some more teammate chat with JJJ speaking to the experience of having to play the five in Steve’s absence...

Jaren Jackson Jr: “I mean shoot I have so much more respect for Steve-o right now, I gotta hold this down. Crazy. He gets every board known to mankind. So me being down here without him it puts a lot more weight on me to be that anchor and be there for my guys. But, you know, I can do it. He gives me a lot of pointers. He’s always teaching me things and leading by example when he’s out there. I did it for him too.”

In The Words Of Mr Lowe

A lot of the chat about the Valanciunas-Adams trade has been annoyingly simplistic. Many people seem to think this was a straight swap and nothing else. Not to mention the arguments over which team ‘won’ the deal. There were plenty of other factors to consider with that trade beyond the two centres who got flipped around. Factors like the Zaire Williams pick or the Pelicans’ salary situation or the Grizzlies’ offensive balance, etc.

Zach Lowe is always one of the sharpest tools in the NBA media shed so shout out to him for actually spotting the point of the matter. Seeing the logic beneath behind the headlines. As to who ‘won’... I mean, there’s a pretty good case to say that both teams got better by the deal, don’t you think? In which case no need to argue or to judge. Happy days.

Lowe also goes on to explore some of the intricacies of what Memphis are doing with Adams and how he’s helping his teammates succeed. Desmond Bane in particular, who has nearly half of Adams’ total assists. The Adams and Morant pick and roll combination is a thrilling weapon due to the complimentary strengths of both players but the chemistry has taken some time, to be fair. You can see the seams. However the Adams and Bane combo was almost instantly successful. Bane’s growth into a genuine and reliable scorer has been stunning and Steven Adams has played a large role in unlocking him.

“Bane's emergence is part of the payoff from the Valanciunas-Adams swap. Valanciunas deserved and received tons of post touches. Memphis wanted to redistribute more offense to Bane, Jaren Jackson Jr., and others within a modern spread pick-and-roll offense. They wagered that system would help Ja Morant take another leap. (Umm, yeah.) Adams is a brick wall screener. He requires zero post touches. He is the plant you don't have to water. You don't get this Bane with Valanciunas in Adams' spot.”

SLAM DUNKS

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