Herrington: Tuomas Iisalo offers Grizzlies different voice, but is it too late?
Memphis Grizzlies interim head coach Tuomas Iisalo talks to players during the second half against the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday, March 29 at FedExForum. (Wesley Hale/Special to The Daily Memphian)
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.
Tuomas Iisalo sat in front of a microphone as interim head coach of the Memphis Grizzlies, his first such occasion, and cut to the quick.
“With the situation we’re in, one of the biggest constraints for us is obviously time,” he said.
Iisalo was a winning coach in Paris until the Grizzlies recruited him to be Taylor Jenkins’ lead assistant this season. Now he was about 30 hours into being an NBA head coach, for a team fading in a playoff race with only nine games to go.
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