Hours after the Grizzlies’ “miraculous” game 3, come-from-behind win over the Oklahoma City Thunder, the 2-time defending
champion Los Angeles Lakers tipped off their final game of the 2010-2011 season. Many saw it coming. The Lakers were down 3-0. There is no 2004 Red Sox precedence in the history of the NBA Playoffs. On the bench that Sunday afternoon, 65-year old Phil Jackson, coach of 11 championship teams, coached his last game. Now is not the time to document all of Jackson’s accomplishments as a coach. That’s been done before. Instead, let’s go back to December 14, 2005- a Grizzly home loss to the Lakers. 16,591 were in attendance that night to watch the Grizzlies but mostly Kobe. After the win, Phil Jackson famously said of downtown Memphis, “It’s like Dresden after the war.”
Earlier this season, at the low point of the Grizz’s regular season in both performance and fan attendance, Jumpshot Griesbeck and I had wondered aloud whether Jackson’s comments concerning downtown Memphis could also be declared true of the atmosphere inside the walls of FedEx Forum. No one was coming to the games, morale was low, and the only times fans were standing during games was to applaud the military families sitting in vacant courtside seats to the classic “Born In The USA”. At that point, we wrote a rather pessimistic article, noticing that opposing teams could not win in the forum on 2nd nights of back-to-backs, and guessing it was because there just wasn’t enough reason for them to play hard. Well, Jumpshot and I began to track the games where opposing teams came in on back to backs, calling these games “Dresden games.” Our Dresden Theory proved to be unbelievably accurate. Eventually, radio shows like the Chris Vernon show and even ESPN began to notice that the Grizz never lose what we would call “Dresden games.” As the season progressed, we became more confident in our theory, more confident that tired teams couldn’t win before a emotionless and empty stadium. The grizz went a perfect 15-0 when our Dresden theory applied.
But the Dresden theory is no longer.
The playoffs has changed everything. Phil Jackson has retired. The crowds have been amazing, and the city believes. As I’ve told
nearly every person I know at Elon University, it’s not too late to jump on the bandwagon. Join grizz nation. Support the movement. If you’re a Memphian, get season tickets.
It’s not the right time yet to dream about next year. We’re all still dreaming about this year and this series. But whatever happens in the rest of these playoffs or in the offseason, the Dresden days are behind us as a franchise.
This marks the beginning of a new era in Grizzlies basketball. Do you believe?
I live the grizzlife and love it,
Paul
[...] I love Griesbeck’s “We’re still the Grizzlies” (WSTG) theory. And I get it. Last year our Dresden Theory had a perfect 15-0 record. Teams just could not win in a “Dresden after the war” FedEx forum on [...]