Herrington: Grizzlies-Thunder is a rivalry renewed
Growl towels are seen on the seat backs inside FedExForum before a Memphis Grizzlies basketball game Feb. 19, 2016. (Brandon Dill/AP file)
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.
OKLAHOMA CITY — On Thursday night, the Memphis Grizzlies will host the Oklahoma City Thunder in the 22nd playoff matchup between these franchises whose histories and cultures are particularly intertwined.
Both relocated — now long ago but with different measures of agony — from buzzier Pacific Northwest cities (Vancouver and Seattle, respectively) to small middle-America markets in what had previously been thought of as college-sports territory.
They are a day’s drive apart and, in terms of major professional sports, are each the only game in town. Teams like this don’t just engage a fan base but a community, and for a few years roughly a decade ago, these teams frequently pitted their communities in festive but fervid competition.
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