Take a knee or not, Grizzlies, NBA leaders had something to say

Good morning in Memphis, where Marc Gasol is making us an eggplant tomato casserole, but first …

It wasn’t until the last scrum of the Grizzlies’ annual media gathering yesterday that the “take a knee” questions nearly broke me.

Mike Conley, batting last in the day’s order, was asked about President Donald Trump’s weekend comments -- calling peacefully protesting NFL players “sons of bitches” that should be fired and lashing out at two-time NBA MVP Steph Curry.

“I can’t speak for everybody, but the majority of this organization felt that what Trump said was inappropriate,” Conley said, before noting that the team stood in support of “equality and unity” and then going on a little detour about the demographics of Memphis, about the level of inequality in our community, and about how people of means don’t notice it as much as they should.

“Are you planning on doing something?,” Conley was asked, taking a knee on opening night being the implication. And I wanted to reply for him: “He just did.” (Conley is also featured in this Esquire story on NBA activism.)

It was a rough day for the “stick to sports” crowd; for those with the luxury of pretending politics is an elective concern, something you can choose to let into or keep out of your life.

It’s going to be a rough season.  

When WNBA players, since-banished NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, and other athletes first embarked on silent protests during the playing of the national anthem, it was in response to racial inequality and police brutality. It was not about our current president, who did not hold office at that time.

Over the weekend, for better or worse, this president made the protests about him, at least for a moment, and legions of athletes and others, who had not participated before, responded. What happened over the weekend was a kind of mass revulsion against specific presidential behavior. A protest against racism and police brutality became, for a weekend at least, a peaceful demonstration simply in support of the right to peacefully demonstrate.

The insistent “what will you do?” questioning yesterday made me wonder if “taking a knee” risks becoming -- via the urge for media narrative, for a shiny object to bat around -- the American flag lapel pin of protest gestures. During political debates for a time, the presence, or especially lack thereof, of the symbol on a politician’s chest risked obscuring the substance of what he or she was saying.

David Fizdale said yesterday that he would take a knee with his team if they chose to do so, and that made a good soundbite. But he also urged the state to relent on the city’s bid to remove Confederate statues in Memphis: “I know these issues make some people uncomfortable, but think about how black people feel when they walk by those statues. … They have a place in history, but we know why they’re there [in public parks].”

He talked about his work organizing the PALS police hoops league, about his advocacy for urban farming, about a new program he’s working on with Grizzlies local owners Staley Cates and Elliot Perry to assist men transitioning from incarceration back into the general population. He issued a challenge for Memphis to engage more significantly in next spring’s MLK50 events.

And, yeah, he talked about the president, getting a little loose and a little animated toward the end: “You wanna talk about disrespecting our military? Go through his tweets.” And then he went through a litany: Attacks on the service of Senator John McCain, on Gold Star families, reckless rhetoric regarding North Korea.

You don’t need to wonder whether Fizdale will do something. Pre-game gesture or no, he already is.

Fizdale, of course, isn’t alone among his coaching fraternity in speaking out during what Steve Kerr, head coach of the reigning champion Golden State Warriors, has noted are not normal times.

Over the weekend, Kerr, whose team was uninvited to the White House after star player Stephen Curry expressed some doubt about whether he’d want to go, noted that he’d had the pleasure of an audience with the five previous presidents, three Republicans and two Democrats, and had considered each an honor, whatever their politics, whatever his politics. He lamented that it was different now: “In his tweet to Steph, Trump talked about honoring the White House but, really, isn’t it you who must honor the White House, Mr. President? And the way to do that is through compassion and dignity and being above the fray. Not causing the fray.”

Most eloquent of all has been San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, a special case in many ways. The famously taciturn Popovich has been unusually outspoken on the subject of the current White House occupant, who seems to bother him deeply, personally, in a way that goes far beyond normal political disagreement. Popovich has an unusual resume. He's an Air Force Academy graduate and intelligence trainee who considered a career in the CIA before becoming a five-time NBA champion coach. For ESPN, Memphis aficionado Kevin Arnovitz explores why a new president has changed the way Popovich communicates beyond basketball.

Yesterday, while Fizdale and Conley and others were fielding these questions, Popovich went truly deep:

"Obviously, race is the elephant in the room, and we all understand that unless it is talked about constantly, it is not going to get better. People get bored, 'Oh, is it that again? They are pulling the race card.' Because it's uncomfortable, there has be an uncomfortable element in the discourse for anything to change. Whether it is LGBT, women's suffrage, race, [it] doesn't matter. People have to be made to feel uncomfortable; especially white people. We still have no clue what being born white means.

"If you read some of the recent literature, there is no such thing as whiteness. But we made it up. Not my original thought, but it's true. Because you were born white, you have advantages systemically, culturally, psychology there. They have been built up for hundreds of years. Many people can't look at it. [It] can't be something on their plate on a daily basis. People want their status quo. People don't want to give it up. Until it's given up, it's not going to be fixed."

Not everyone on Grizzlies Media Day was eager to speak out. Many weren’t asked or didn’t have much to say. It was an easy line of inquiry to deflect: They’d all just shown up and hadn’t met as a team to talk about it. Chandler Parsons, who noted military service in his family, said he was reluctant to do anything that would suggest disrespect for the country. And I respect that, though I think the answer risks mischaracterizing the nature of these protests, either Kaepernick’s or the ones over the weekend.

We have a tendency, and especially in regard to sports, to equate patriotic symbols with the military, as if the United States is an army rather than a country that has one, to equate these symbols with the armed services rather than the principles the armed services daily defend. If America is as much creed as place, then what should unite us are principles: government of, by and for the people, freedom of expression, the promise of equality, of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. Those who have taken a knee, either against racism or simply against an attack on free expression from one sworn to uphold it, have essentially stood up for these principles. This doesn’t mean you have to agree with their tactics, and it does not mean all athletes should feel pressure to make the same gesture.

It’s a free country, or is supposed to be, and people can express themselves how they see fit. I find that words work pretty well. They did in Memphis yesterday.

Sticking to Sports (or Nonsense)

As for the lighter side of Grizzlies’ media day, Ron Tillery writes about the team’s embrace of the unknown, while Geoff Calkins surveys a new day dawning for the Chandler Parsons era and rounds up some interesting quotes. I’ll add a few other stray observations. (My pre-Media Day Pick-and-Pop column on other Grizzlies/NBA issues is here.)

Personality Crisis: In a season of transition, the Grizzlies need to find some surprises, not just in terms of performance but in terms of personality. Who will emerge as new fan favorites? A couple of bench players made their bid yesterday. Returnee Mario Chalmers was funny -- It takes awhile to recover from an Achilles injury, right? It’s been awhile, Chalmers pointed out -- and played the ceremonial role of “fake media,” worming his way into Conley’s scrum with a “microphone” in hand. More guileless in his entertainment value was Serbia rookie Rade Zagorac, who noted his period of adjustment in Summer League (“It took a few games to get used to people dunking all over the place”) and then looked around, musing: “I know there’s a lot of new faces here. I’m a new face.”

The Size of the Scrum: Scrum size suggests pecking order, at least from a story sense. David Fizdale and Chandler Parsons: Big scrums. When rookie Dillon Brooks came out for his availability soon after Parsons had started, he stopped to crane his neck to see who was drawing the crowd. Noting Parsons, he raised his eyebrows and smiled. Then he settled in for his small scrum, which was still bigger than D-League-bound Kobi Simmons, Jeremy Morgan and Vince Hunter. On the rise, scrum-wise: Wayne Selden. The second-year guard, a non-roster, D-league bound participant last fall, stopped during one answer and said, “I sat at the same seat last year. There weren’t as many people here.” And then he started laughing.

Two-Man Game: Though Mike Conley and Marc Gasol both had fond words for departed hoops siblings Zach Randolph and Tony Allen, a part of them also seemed to relish their new spot as clear team co-leaders.

“Without Zach and Tony here, I feel more responsibility about the outcome of the team,” Gasol said, before noting that the new players would have to adapt to him and Conley, not the other way around.

“It’s almost like having children. They look up to everything you do,” Conley said of all the baby Grizzlies milling about (most of them then loitering in the hallway, eating pizza). “We’re two of the easiest guys to play with. It’ll be about bringing them up to that level.”

Food on the Brain: Gasol, ever his own particular brand of intense Zen, noted that gardening helps his mind more than his body, but also allowed that he really enjoys his own tomatoes and eggplant. But this was only the food quote of the day runner-up:

Rade, let me instruct you on this topic the way Conley will on the pick-and-roll: It’s a potential we all have inside us, we just have to tap into it. You have done well, young Jedi. (Though I can't say it will help with your foot speed.)

Additional Reading:

• Ted Evanoff on Berlin Boyd and the future of Beale Street.
• Wayne Risher on FedEx’s outlook.
• Memphis football looks ahead to Central Florida.
• A crazy story about a former Memphis police officer, 20 guns and the White House.

Happening in Memphis Today: Urban planner and author Jeff Tumlin will deliver a presentation on "Planning as if People Mattered: How our Current Approach to Mobility Makes us Fat, Poor, Angry, and Depressed and How We Can Fix It." It’s 1 p.m. - 3 p.m. at the University Center at the University of Memphis, co-hosted by the University of Memphis Design Collaborative and the Memphis chapter of the Urban Land Institute. … Indie Memphis will preview this fall’s film festival at the Rec Room tonight. … “Hansel & Gretel” takes musical form at the Orpheum tonight. … Blues-rocker Z.Z. Ward is at the New Daisy tonight.

The Fadeout: In honor of Marc Gasol’s favorite homegrown vegetable:

Reach Chris Herrington at chris.herrington@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter at @chrisherrington and @herringtonNBA.