| Chatting with the Big Cheese - Part One |
 |
| Written by Chip Crain |
| Thursday, 03 December 2009 11:14 |
|
Once again 3 Shades of Blue was fortunate enough to have a nice talk with the Memphis Grizzlies majority owner, and major decision maker, Michael Heisley. Mr. Heisley has always been very receptive and open in communicating with anyone interested in the Memphis Grizzlies and was one of the first owners in the NBA to allow himself to be interviewed by a blog site. We deeply appreciate his willingness to discuss the team with us and hope our readers enjoy reading his answers. This interview was held on Tuesday, December 1, 2009. 3SOB: Good afternoon Mr. Heisley, the first question we have for you is pretty straightforward. What are your impressions so far about how the season is going? MH: I think it's been like a roller coaster. I can't tell you how pleased I am with a number of the games. With the way the front line has played. I think Marc Gasol has been a real pleasant surprise. Zach Randolph has been every bit as much as I hoped he would be. Rudy Gay is moving towards being a real star in this league. O. J. Mayo's having a good year. He could play a little better but he's having a good year but I'm disappointed in the point guard position so far. I'm not trying to knock Mike Conley its early on but he's not having a good year so far. 3SOB: About 18 months ago you announced the 3 year plan. Where do you think we are now in that 3 year plan? MH: Well my problem is, I don't know where I am this season. You know when my team goes out and beats Portland and had a 30-point lead and loses most of that, and then comes back and beats the Clippers until they score 7 points in the 4th quarter, I don't know how to answer that. My take is that we're a lot better than our records shows. We just have to learn how to close out games. You have to understand I have the youngest team in the NBA. Jerry West one time told me that if you look at the Final Four, those teams virtually never have a young team in the mix. In other words, they've got to learn how to play in the NBA. Look how much Marc's improved since he's been with us. Look how much O. J.’s improved and Rudy. They're still very young. At the end of last year I thought Conley had turned the corner. This year I think he's regressed a little bit so that's been a disappointment. I had hoped that that problem would have been solved for this year but it's no question we have a problem there. Mike's got to improve or we have to look somewhere else. I'm not trying to trash Mike. I'm sure he's just as disappointed in that as I am. I'm just being honest. If you'd asked me at the start of the season what I thought of the team, I would have said we could compete and I am still very, very confident we can finish with a much better record than we did last year. 3SOB: The Allen Iverson situation obviously didn't work out the way you planned. There's been a lot of discussion here in Memphis about why his role wasn't more clearly defined at the meeting in Atlanta. MH: Well at the meeting in Atlanta it was pursued and it was pretty clear. I don't know why you're assuming it wasn't clear. 3SOB: Well the comment was ... MH: You think the problem was it wasn't clear? 3SOB: No sir. It was the comments made at the press conference that whether or not he would start or not never came up in the conversation and Iverson was obviously upset that he wasn't the starter right away. MH: Believe me I have made comments with people talking to me now and where I have said I thought Allen would be a very positive influence on their team and I would love to see him back in the NBA. I'm sorry he's not back with me. What happened was that Allen was told he would have the ability to compete for the starting role. That's what he was told. Lionel said I am very concerned that you won't let me coach you. He was very blunt to Allen. He [Iverson] said no it won't be a problem. And Lionel said, and I remember very clearly what he said, if it's close to the end of the game, maybe a minute left, and I take you out and put somebody else in are you willing to accept that? Allen was a little disturbed but he said yes. That's the way the meeting ended. Allen said he wanted the opportunity to compete for it. What happened? Well, #1 Allen will tell you that he didn't work out until he signed a contract because he didn't want to hurt himself. So he was not coming into the camp in the greatest of shape but Allen's body is one that is almost always in shape. Well they came to camp and he was out of shape, not like an overweight guy but not in NBA shape. So he's coming along and then Allen tears his hamstring and he had to sit down. I told Allen at that time "Allen, I'm going to be the guy that makes the final decision: when you come back to play, when you get back on the court, and how much time you get. And I’m going to get my recommendations from the trainer." Allen said fine and went on. Allen didn't complain. He didn't play in any of the exhibition games except the first one when he got hurt and sat out after the first quarter. So he got no exhibition games. He didn't get any conditioning either because he couldn't run. So when the season started Allen was still injured and not in the best of condition. We were going to have to bring him along slowly. The trainer said I don't want him playing in the first two or three games but when he starts to play we should play him about 15 minutes. We're going to watch him very closely and bring him along slowly otherwise he's going to injure this leg again. So that's the directions Lionel got. He played him 18 minutes in the first game when we told him 15 minutes. Which was fine and Allen did well. He scored 11 points in 18 minutes I think. So in the 2nd game, if I remember correctly, he played 25 minutes and he scored 17 points. Now he went to the press and started bitching about not being the starter. I think he was being a little ridiculous to think he could be put out there after he's coming off that leg injury and be the starter and that he had earned it like he said he wanted to do. Lionel then had a meeting with him and the team; with all of the stuff that was going on around the team and Allen was very upset. I was in the Middle East when this took place and I flew for 29 hours and when I got home I heard there was a problem and I flew out to the West Coast. Lionel and I met with Allen and I thought things were going to be straightened out. He came to me that night and said he had a problem at home that he had to take care of, which I believed to be true and I still do believe, and I told him to take as much time as he needed to take care of his personal problem and so he left. I didn't hear from him for a couple of days. Then I heard he was thinking of retiring. I talked to his agent and his agent told me that he was thinking of retiring, and that he didn't think it was a good idea. I said I didn't think it was either, and I hoped he would come back. Then we heard that he is going to come back. Then at the last minute Allen announced he was retiring. I told his agent, Leon Rose, I don't want Allen to retire. I think that what we ought to do is have what is called a divorce, because this will allow Allen to play with anybody he wants and he won't have to clear waivers. So he said that that was very nice Mr. Heisley. I wanted Allen back in the league. I wanted Allen to play in this league. If he can't play for us I want him to play for somebody else. |
Comments
Chip