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Over.

Sadly. I feel the depths of the unintentional awkwardness were only just touched. There was a vast reserve of painful that we are all denied the pleasure of viewing. That’s a global loss. We need to stand together and mourn as a collective human consciousness.

At least the four remaining Grizzlies fans can remember the Iverson era together in the burn ward, having set themselves on fire after Brandon Jennings dropping 55 over the weekend for Milwaukee. Thankfully, the Grizzlies denied themselves a talented point guard because they already had Mike Conley and wanted to get them some Thabeet. Because nothing says progress like the commitement to Mike Conley at point guard. He’s Brevin Knight. Only not as good. The awful. It burns.

And when the remaining Grizzlies fans recall the Iverson era, they can fondly recall that one game. And the other one. And that last one. So they got that going for them…

Two things:

1. Re: the Memphis debacle and the Chris Wallace jokes. Stop. Wallace might indeed be the world’s worst GM, but you cannot base that on what is happening in Memphis right now, because Wallace has about as much to do with what’s happening on the court in terms of personnel as I do. You want to bag on him for being a puppet and willingly being the public face of Heisley’s failures? Have at it. But blaming him for the actual personnel decisions is like blaming a baby for a smelly diaper. He is powerless to change it himself. Consider this my semi-annual attempt to shed light of the real Grizzlies problem: owner Mike Heisley. Chris Herrington, who observes and writes on the Grizzlies for the local Memphis alternative paper the Memphis Flyer, has a fantastic article on the nuclear fallout from the Allen Iverson debacle, and assigns blame to all involved as well he should. But his words on owner Mike Heisley need to be highlighted:

Michael Heisley: I’ve riffed on this so many times that writing about it bores me, but the Iverson mess is just the latest and (so far) worst outcome of Michael Heisley appointing himself the team’s President of Basketball Operations, an overreaction to his (somewhat justifiable) disappointment over the Jerry West era and his (clearly justifiable) disenchantment with Marc Iavaroni. The lesson Heisley thinks he learned then — a conclusion that denigrates his basketball employees, past and present — is that anybody can run a basketball team, and that he can be that anybody.

His imposition of Allen Iverson onto this team did a disservice to a basketball operations staff that didn’t want him, a young roster that needs some stability and focus rather than yet more drama, and a fan base that over-estimated Iverson’s potential impact even if things had gone well and underestimated the considerable odds of things going poorly. It would have been a disservice to Iverson as well if he had any other options for playing in the NBA this season. But he didn’t. (This fact seems to have been forgotten by those who think Iverson has been mistreated.)

Heisley, of course, made a bad idea even worse by presiding over what seems to have been a slipshod evaluation process before signing Iverson, having an apparently vague meeting with a difficult player when past history suggests total candor was in order. If anyone involved would like to be more forthcoming about what happened in that now-infamous meeting in Atlanta, that would be great. But the uniformly shifty public comments from all parties involved suggests that specifics about Iverson’s role with the Grizzlies were danced around and that everyone left having convinced themselves that they heard what they wanted to hear.

The Grizzlies need someone running this organization that is serious about building a competent basketball team rather than flexing his muscles, resorting to marketing gimmicks, and signing a player because of his own fandom. It’s past time for Heisley to step down as de facto President of Basketball Operations, put good people in place (some of whom may well already be there), empower them, and then try to keep himself out of the newspapers for awhile. If Heisley is chagrined enough by his self-created Iverson mess to move in this direction, then something good will actually come from this. I’m not betting on it, though.

Yes. As always with Herrington’s pieces, what he said.

2. Chris Herrington. The other reason for the headline on this post. He writes some of the finest and most insightful pieces on the Grizzlies in particular and occasionally the NBA in general that you could ever hope to read if you are an NBA fan. Even if the Grizzlies hold no interest for you (and why should they), if you love the NBA, do yourself a favor and bookmark Herrington’s blog at the Flyer and check in on it every once in awhile. His wrap-up from Memphis’ latest on-court debacle is a good example of his general excellence. And the exegesis he unleashed on the Iverson debacle was as definitive as you can hope to read anywhere. I wish more people knew about Herrington and read him, so consider this my quiet plea to the 10 or so people who wander over this way on the net to give him a look every now and then.

Three or so games. That’s how long this lasted. Three. Or so. Well. Three. The “or so” would have been two minutes of the team’s open scrimmage back to start training camp in Birmingham.

Not one of them in Memphis.

At any rate, hard on the heels of you-fuckers-really-are-not-playing-me-ahead-of-Mike-Conley-you-cannot-be-serious gate, Iverson is headed back to Atlanta for “personal reasons“. Was that “personal reason” his dawning realization that he was playing for Memphis? Probably.

Mike Heisley, nice job scamming all those lemmings who bought tix to see Iverson in Memphis this year. The Grizzlies cannot be anymore of a laughingstock, can they? They can, can’t they? Oh god, they really can. There’s always another level of sad, isn’t there?

That was hella quick. Quoth AI:

“I had no problems (with the hamstring). I had a problem with my butt sitting on that bench for so long,” Iverson said.

When a reporter suggested that the Grizzlies’ youthful and offensively challenged bench desperately needs Iverson’s scoring punch, the 34-year-old shook his head in disagreement.

“No. I’m not a bench player. I’m not a sixth man,” Iverson said. “Look at my resume and that’ll show I’m not a sixth man. I don’t think it has anything to do with me being selfish. It’s just who I am. I don’t want to change what gave me all the success that I’ve had since I’ve been in this league. I’m not a sixth man. And that’s that.”

You know what?

I don’t think he’s wrong. Since Mike Heisley signed the team up for this particular road, might as well go all in. If that means Mike Conley sits, then Mike Conley sits.

By the way, lost in Memphis’ 1-3 start is that Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph are both playing hard. Damn hard. In Gasol’s case, not a surprise. In Randolph’s case, kinda surprising. Go check out Gasol’s stats through four games. If he’s on your fantasy waiver wire, go get him. 19 points, 12 boards, 64% field goal, 85% free throws, two assists and a block a game. Damn solid.

The list of suitors for Allen Iverson’s 2009 services remains thin. Grizzlies thin. With maybe a sprinkling of Bobcat thrown in.

Iverson supposedly will make a decision today. He’s promised to “lead by example” should be end up in Memphis. That should be entertaining.

I know it’s a scary new world out there with Twitter and all, and you are guys are being rather Luddite about it, but, here’s the thing. You don’t get to ignore it. So when Allen Iverson himself broke the news that the Grizzlies had made him a contract offer on his twitter page early yesterday, that was all that was needed for it to be a story. Because Iverson himself was the source of the news. And you would figure he would know.

So when you ran a crawl on ESPNews last night that said “Chris Sheridan reports that Allen Iverson has contract offer from Grizzlies” that gets filed under no-fuckin’-shit. But thanks for feeling like you need to put the imprimatur of “approval” on the news the world already had for about 12 hours thanks to Iverson himself.

Get over yourselves, ESPN. There are sources for “breaking news” now that are not going to be you. Stop pretending you have the story exclusviely when everyone in the world has had it for 12 hours.

Jeebus.

The details from the Commercial Appeal, which goes ahead and cites to Iverson’s twitter announcement as the source for its reporting. Well done, Commercial Appeal. From the story:

It appears the former All-Star is deciding between Memphis and Charlotte. There is a strong possibility Iverson could land with the Bobcats, who can offer the midlevel exception without entering luxury tax territory.

Charlotte would reunite Iverson with coach Larry Brown and present an opportunity for the 13-year veteran to start. Memphis still views Iverson as a reserve guard behind O.J. Mayo and Mike Conley.

Apparently, not Memphis. Same answer for Jason Williams. Apparently not Memphis.

In Iverson’s case, he’s hoping on calls from Charlotte, Miami, or New York.

In Williams’ case, he just worked out for Orlando.

Memphis, the worst fall-back option ever.

His flirtation with Memphis recedes, as he moves from the Grizzlies’ insane ego-maniacal owner Michael Heisley in search of even bigger ego-maniacal game. And stalks Clippers owner Donald Sterling. Which brings us to this from Mitch Lawrence in the NY Daily News:

Clippers owner Donald Sterling wants Allen Iverson, but not many of his top basketball people are thinking along those lines.

“It’s out of our control,” complained one Clipper executive this past week. “This is owner-driven.”

Apparently, Sterling has noted that Clippers tickets are moving as slowly as L.A. traffic. He sees Iverson as a box-office draw, even in a bench role following a disastrous season in Detroit that ended with him being sent home for the playoffs.

Yeah. Why listen to your basketball people? Actually, Donald Sterling, why even have basketball people? Seems a waste of money. Same question should be directed to the Grizzlies owner at this point.

Jeebus. Even for Whitlock and his well-known flame-throwing writing style, this is provocative (from foxsports.com):

Winning has never really mattered to Allen Iverson. He is the embodiment of everything that has gone wrong in America, an unexposed, all-style-little-substance Hall of Famer. In five months, Iverson accomplished what Flip Saunders couldn’t in three years. The Answer turned the six-time Eastern Conference finalists into a hanging-by-a-string, eighth-place playoff qualifier. And then he quit, citing back problems, a reduced role and lack of interest. Officially the Pistons deactivated Iverson for the remainder of the season due to injuries. The truth is, Iverson took his ball and went home, uncomfortable with the thought of easing back into the rotation with limited participation in practice and games. Iverson said he’d rather retire than come off the bench, help the Pistons win and represent Detroit. Loser.

…

Meanwhile, Iverson gave up on Chocolate City, a chocolate coach (Michael Curry), a chocolate general manager (Joe Dumars) and an all-chocolate, one-Argentine roster. I mention race because Iverson, his tatts, his swagger, his rap sheet and his style of play all supposedly gave him a special level of street cred and no-sellout status.

How you like Iverson now, Detroit? The view from up close is quite chilling and enlightening. His ghetto-warrior reputation couldn’t be any further separated from reality than had the producers of “Lost” written his script. Iverson is a one-man, no-country Army, more than likely the victim of a dysfunctional upbringing that left him incapable of embracing the concepts essential to teamwork, winning and sacrifice for the benefit of others.

Gracious. As always, Whitlock at least has a take. Swamp uber all-timer Hood* in one of his many swamp handle incarnations and I got into a fullblown disagreement over Iverson and the kind of teammate/player he is when Iverson was dealt to Denver a few years back. Unfortunately, I think that thread is lost to the sands of time nope it’s alive and well and here, but Whitlock’s take here is in the ballpark of what I was trying to get at back in the day. Although I did not go quite this far.

Another of the Swamp’s all-timers, Ed Romero, points the way to a Boston Globe piece today on the Iverson/Pistons ending, with some kinder words for Iverson. It’s not like the Pistons were burning it up one way or another (24-30 without AI, 8-9 with him).

Suffice it to say, Iverson’s legacy on the game will be complicated.

From the Detroit Free Press this morning:

“Three games in, Allen Iverson is taking his demotion super-duper well. The Pistons’ highest-paid reserve said Wednesday that he would rather retire than be a bench player next season.

“I’m in a position now that I’ve never been in my whole life,” Iverson said after the Pistons’ loss to New Jersey. “It’s harder than I thought it would be. With the back injury, I have to sit out at the start, then go in, then sit again. It’s tough to really get going. I take my hat off to the guys who can come off the bench and be effective. It’s tough for me. I’m struggling with it.” Iverson, of course, also complained about his minutes Tuesday after playing 18 against Cleveland. He played 17 against the Nets. “I’d rather retire before I do this again,” Iverson said. “I can’t be effective playing this way. I’m not used to it. It’s tough for me both mentally and physically.”

But remember, Iverson will do anything it takes for the Pistons to win. As long as he’s starting, apparently.”

Yes. Apparently.