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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.

Having surveyed their roster, the Grizzlies have apparently zeroed in on what that final piece is to a championship season:

Jason Williams.

No, not the murderer, or the bad biker, the White Chocolate one.

Because what Memphis needs is a 33-year-old point guard who back in the day had a questionable attitude and just took a year off from the NBA to deal with a bad back. Why would they do this? Because owner Mike Heisley is Al Davis crazy. Again, to pre-empt the coming Bill Simmons broadside against GM Chris Wallace, this is NOT Wallace pushing this. It’s Heisley. A quick scan of the Commercial Appeal article reveals these quotes:

“He looks in great shape,” Heisley said. “I think Jason still has a lot to offer.”

“He owes it to his family and himself to try to find a better offer. If he doesn’t, we’re interested. But I’m not going to discuss the contract,” Heisley said, acknowledging that the Grizzlies’ offer “wouldn’t be a big deal.”

“He’d be our second-team guard,” said Heisley, who claimed that Williams weighs 10 pounds less than when he last played for the Griz. “His role would be to help put points on the board with that group, and he has a lot he has to offer to guys like Mike Conley and O.J. Mayo. That’s why I want a veteran who comes with real experience. He was good enough to be a starting point guard on a world championship team and that gives him the right to tell our young guys what to do and what not to do.”

“He’s much more mature,” Heisley said. “He was like a kid then. He’s like a man now. He’d be a great influence on the kids. There’s no question he’d be a plus. I talked to him and was very pleased with his attitude. He understood what we would want from him.”

Nary a Chris Wallace quote in there. This is Heisley, through and through, pushing this. Memphis’ own Mike Brown (Bengals owner). Scouts gone, front office gutted, puppet GM, and reportedly profitable franchise in this new and awful NBA world.

Williams not signed yet (supposedly the Knicks and Magic are kicking the tires as well), but if he is, let the winning begin!

So much for leverage with the second pick:

“Rubio doesn’t want to go to Memphis, and he especially does not want to pay money out of his own pocket with that huge buyout for the honor of doing so. Fegan [Rubio’s agent] wants him in L.A., and if he can’t have him there, he wants him in Sacramento. Definitely not Oklahoma City. “

Unlike Griffin or Hasheem Thabeet, who don’t really have any choice where they will play next season if a team decides to play hardball, Rubio has a reasonably attractive alternative option at his disposal—returning to Spain.

“He’ll pull out if he doesn’t like what he’s hearing,” the NBA source tells us. “Or he can stay in and force the Grizzlies to call his bluff—would they really take him knowing that he may never come over? That’s one way to get him to fall to three.”

Add in that Chad Ford is defending his assigning Hasheem Thabeet to Memphis by saying that his NBA source is close to Grizzlies owner and general bastard Mike Heisley and it is HEISLEY who is wanting Thabeet, over the objections of his entire front office, and, well, fuck.

I wish I could properly convey to you all the abject hopelessness and despair that is being a Memphis Grizzlies fan. I don’t know how to properly frame the infinite chasm of darkness that is that particular lot in life. Suffice it to say, it’s not a good thing. Nothing is ever good news. Ever. There’s always a twist that reveals the brief glimmer of hope to instead be wrapped in and infused with raw sewage.