Calkins: You don’t have to believe in the Grizzlies’ chances. Just believe in yourselves.
Memphis Grizzlies fans wave growl towels during the first half of Game 3 in an NBA basketball first-round playoff series against the San Antonio Spurs on April 20, 2017, in Memphis. (Brandon Dill/AP file)
Geoff Calkins
Geoff Calkins has been chronicling Memphis and Memphis sports for more than two decades. He is host of "The Geoff Calkins Show" from 9-11 a.m. M-F on 92.9 FM. Calkins has been named the best sports columnist in the country five times by the Associated Press sports editors, but still figures his best columns are about the people who make Memphis what it is.
The opponent was Oklahoma City, as it happens. The Grizzlies were getting getting beat back then, too.
It was late in Game 3 of the 2011 playoff series between the Grizzlies and the Thunder. The Grizzlies trailed by double digits.
And then for some reason — not because it was part of any grand plan — the fans rose and held their growl towels to create a wall of defiant optimism.
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