The Birth of Grit and Grind: Remembering Tony Allen’s improbable Grizzlies breakthrough
(Photo Illustration by Kelsey Bowen/The Daily Memphian)
Tony Allen’s “No. 9” Grizzlies jersey will be retired in a ceremony following the Grizzlies’ game against the Miami Heat on Saturday, March 15, where it will join Zach Randolph’s “No. 50” and Marc Gasol’s “No. 33.”
The game, which will feature Allen tributes and video segments during breaks in play, and the postgame ceremony will be broadcast on the FanDuel Sports Network as well as locally on WMC-TV. Tipoff is 7 p.m.
A feature-length, Grizzlies-produced documentary on Allen, “Tony Allen: The Grindfather,” has been made available on YouTube.
Let the record reflect that Tony Allen’s Memphis Grizzlies breakthrough — a journey in which he became a transformative on-court force and civic folk hero — came in a 2011 regular-season win against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
It came with Allen making huge plays on both ends of the floor in a hard-fought victory.
It came as he performed with a soon-to-be-familiar theatrical zeal and then bared his soul after the game.
No, not that game.
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Chris Herrington
Chris Herrington has covered the Memphis Grizzlies, in one way or another, since the franchise’s second season in Memphis, while also writing about music, movies, food and civic life. As far as he knows, he’s the only member of the Professional Basketball Writers Association who is also a member of a film critics group and has also voted in national music critic polls for Rolling Stone and the Village Voice (RIP). He and his wife have two kids and, for reasons that sometimes elude him, three dogs.
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