I wouldn't call this desperate at all. It's just relative. The criteria for the Bulls to retire a jersery are different then the Grizzlies.
Also, the grizzlies have been around 23 seasons. The first 8 seasons they were the worst team in the league followed by 3 winning seasons with Pau Gasol followed by 4 more losing seasons after they traded him. The first 15 seasons of this franchise's existence was downright terrible.
Then they signed Tony Allen. Everything changed for the Grizz when Tony Allen, The Grindfather, stepped on the court wearing Memphis blue, and when he came up with his famous tag line "grit and grind" in a post game interview. He did for them what KG did for us, (except the obvious ring). They Grizz went on to have 7 good to very good consecutive seasons with multiple 50+ win seasons.
I applaud them for honoring defense, intangibles, leadership and hustle and this could open the doors a bit for Marcus to get his number retired here
Every franchise needs a foundation to build off of.... a culture to follow. The Celtics has their, toughness and grit since the Bill Russell days. Lakers have theirs, showtime, and that continues to today.
I think that is a major, major stretch there.
KG didn't only change the entire culture of the Celtics with his defensive impact, he was also the team's leading rebounder and took turns with Pierce/Allen carrying the team offensively. He did everything for Boston.
Comparing KG to Tony Allen is an insult to Kevin Garnett, who remains (to this day) one of the greatest all-round players to ever play the game.
Tony Allen is a defensive role player who was barely capable of contributing in any other way. He was a negative offensive player most of his career (neutral at best in his better years), couldn't defend, wasn't a skilled passer, didn't really do a whole lot on the boards - he was a master of one category. He was essentially the Steve Kerr of the Grizzlies, since taking (and making) big threes was really the only thing Kerr was great at.
It's difficult to think of other guys who had a game like Tony Allen, who have had their jerseys retired. Even Bruce Bowen isn't really comparable, because as dominant as he was defensively, he was also known for the number of huge game winning threes he made - for the Spurs he was like Tony Allen merged with Robert Horry. His ability to win games on both ends of the floor with his defence and clutch shooting (even if he wasn't a prolific volume scorer) make him a critical part of three Spurs championships.
Tony Allen has been a good one-dimensional player on a bunch of pretty-good-but-not-great teams. The closest comparison to Tony Allen would probably by Tyson Chandler in Dallas, and even that isn't a fair comparison because Chandler didn't only drive Dallas' defence, he also controlled the boards and helped deliver them a title.
I can't even use Anthony Mason or Charles Oakley in NY as examples, because even those guys contributed in other areas aside from just defence.
Can anybody here think of a muilt-time All Defensive teamer who literally could not do ANYTHING else at an above average level and never won a title, yet got his jersey retired? Anybody?
Your entire reply is missing the whole point! You are comparing him to other players on other franchises when the criteria for retiring a number is different for each team.
Comparing what Tony Allen did for the culture of Memphis to what KG did for the Celtics is no insult at all. You act like I am saying Tony is as good as KG is... which im not. What Tony did for the Memphis Grizzlies, The Grindfather... Grit and Grind... its very similiar and very comparable to what KG brought the Celtics. I dont see how that is insulting someone. If I was wrong in my assessment then I don't think we would even be having this discussion. Clearly Tony has endeared himself to the Grizzlies fanbase and cemented his legacy there by installing a sense of identity the team can rely upon for years to come.
You come off as someone who has zero clue what Tony and the Grizzlies are all about.
I know very well what Tony and the Grizzlies are about, but thanks anyway for being ignorant enough to suggest that I'm the type of person to comment on something that I know nothing about.
Tony Allen was never the KG of Memphis in any stretch of the imagination. He never has been, and he never could be. That's a dream. Tony Allen himself would probably feel insulted FOR Kevin Garnett, if he heard somebody compare him tot he great KG in any way, shape or form.
A much more accurate comparison would be to say that Tony Allen was the Marcus Smart of Memphis.
After Boston traded away the big three, they went into full rebuild mode. They finished with a bottom 6 record in the NBA, and they looked like a hopeless team filled with soft players on a roster that lacked any clear identity.
Then Danny Ainge selected Marcus Smart 6th overall in the NBA draft - Smart started at the PG spot for us as a rookie, and he immediately brought a new identity to Boston with his toughness, his defence, his energy and his physicality - with his "grit and grind", so to speak.
That year Boston successfully made the playoffs in what would have to go down as one of the fastest and most dramatic "lottery to playoffs" turnarounds in NBA history, and I think it's clear to see that our young rookie Marcus Smart had a LOT to do with that. And all of those Boston fans who were dreading the thought of surviving through 4-5 years of lottery and mediocrity rejoiced, as suddenly we got to cheer again for a Boston team that played with a level of toughness and grit and passion that we could all be proud of. The culture that Smart brought was infectious, and it impacted the team in a huge way - and has continued to do so since that day, which is why there are still a bunch of Celtics fans who absolutely worship Smart and wouldn't trade him even if it meant getting a superstar back.
Marcus Smart is, effectively, our Tony Allen. Isaiah Thomas, Avery Bradley and Al Horford last season were, effectively, our Conley / Randolph / Gasol. Looking at our team last season, how emotionally attached were the majority of Celtics fans to Smart, Thomas and Bradley especially? How upset were so many of us (myself included) when Bradley and Thomas got traded out? We'd be just as upset of Smart got traded out - even if we got a major stud back (like we did by getting Hayward and Kyrie for Bradley and Thomas) we'd still be upset to see him go.
But if Smart somehow decided to retire today, would the Celtics retire his jersey? I'm not sure, but probably not. If Horford, Bradley, Thomas retired after last season? More likely.
And yes I understand that Memphis isn't Boston. I get that they don't have the same storied history we do, and don't have a million numbers already retired like we do, and so the standards get set a little bit lower. That goes without saying. I'm not really even arguing that they SHOULDN'T retire his jersey. All I'm saying is that Tony Allen's impact in Memphis was nothing like KG's impact here, and that I can't recall any players off the top of my head who have had their jerseys retired with teams after such a comparatively (relative to the type of contribution that USUALLY gets guys' jerseys retired) modest contribution.