Zachlandov is 36 years old, but at this stage of his career, Randolph does not seem to be in a hurry to pursue the championship, the offseason choice to join the Kings is the best proof, so far this season this completely reconstructed team has won 3 games, more interestingly, Randolph, who averaged 12.8 points per game, is actually the team's scoring king, but think about it, whether the fans or Randolph himself are probably used to this kind of life - Randolph's data is as good as ever, but the team's record has stagnated. Only, this time, no one called him "cancer" anymore.
Before joining the Grizzlies, Randolph was probably one of the most controversial players in the league, he could average the top inside data of "20+10" per game, but he could never lead the team to the playoffs, and he was never a player with a score, lazy on the court, not defensive, despite the team's victory or defeat, immersed in his own offense, off-court troubles, drug use, drug possession and even drug trafficking, any team he joined has locker room problems, people blame these on him, saying that Randolph is uncompromising." Locker room cancer".
The nasty title probably spread from the Blazers days, and from the moment he was drafted, Randolph seemed to inherit the team's bad traditions: talent and trouble. His famous series came from the 2002-03 season, also his second-year season, when Randolph only had 8.4 points and 4.5 rebounds in the regular season, and did not change much in the first three games of the first round, the Blazers could only 0-3 behind the Mavericks, and as a result, he broke out in the fourth game, and the continuous crazy "20+10" forced the Mavericks into a dead end, almost completing the unique 0-3 reversal.
Randolph became famous, the Blazers decided to make him the core of the development, and he also won the fastest improving player in the third season, that year he began to appear more and more in the "20+10" list, averaging 20.1 points and 10.5 rebounds per game throughout the season, but commensurate with the Blazers' first absence from the playoffs since 1982, this "pain" continued until he left Portland in 2007, and just two years after he left, Roy and Aldridge led the Trail Blazers back to the playoffs.
Look at what he has done during this period and you will know why fans call him "poison": absent from team training, drug use, smuggling guns, obscene gestures to provoke fans, punching and kicking with old teammates in training, sexual harassment... Probably anything that wasn't so nice he would get a little bit of it. However, he is also good enough, in addition to defense, he can play low on the offensive end, regardless of the length of the neck, his height and arm span are enough for him to grab rebounds, and the three threats and mid-range shots are also very skilled, otherwise he would not have won the "20+10" all year round.
Two years after leaving the Trail Blazers, Randolph spent a year in New York and Los Angeles, in the largest cities in the east and west of the United States, Randolph unsurprisingly sunk, and more exposure also allowed his "cancer" attributes to spread, such as he was punished for immature behavior in the game, and then banned, immediately you can hear the news that he is linked to drugs or nightclubs, and after another day, people will see his baby face on the court ignoring the opponent's attack, and even ignoring the team's victory "Stats, especially in the Clippers era, he has to throw 2.2 three-pointers every game with a 20 percent shooting percentage outside the three-point line, and it can be said that no team's management will like this kind of guy who spoils the atmosphere of the team and makes trouble, probably except for the Grizzlies.
So when the Grizzlies traded Randolph from the Clippers in the summer of 2009, many people really looked down on the deal, but they didn't think that Randolph seemed to have a new life in the Grizzlies, he completely transformed the data into a record, the first season led the team to win 16 more games and almost entered the playoffs, and was selected as an All-Star, and the second season, it was the 2010-11 season that reached its peak, and the Grizzlies completed the "Black Eight Miracle" to beat the Spurs in the first round. It was the first series the Grizzlies had won, and while the Spurs' injury and aging were one thing, Randolph really beat Duncan to the point where he couldn't lose his temper, probably the first time since 2005 that a player could be so arrogant against Duncan on the offensive end.
Randolph has been in the Grizzlies for 8 years, during which the Grizzlies have also changed a lot of players, including Guy, Mayo have been sent away, Conley and Gasol Jr. have gradually grown, Randolph is really witnessing the process, no one says he is "cancerous", on the contrary, after he went to the Kings, the Grizzlies gave him the greatest respect - promising to retire his No. 50 jersey, all of which Randolph himself won.
Why did Randolph suddenly "turn back"? Some say it's that Memphis isn't as bustling as New York and Los Angeles, so Randolph can only play basketball, but it's more about his own transformation, he once said something like this: "When I was traded to the Knicks and Clippers, I didn't even meet the team owner, but when I first went to Memphis, I saw Mr. Haysley (the Grizzlies owner) waiting for me there, and at that moment, I had a feeling that I had never felt before, and I knew it was going to be a new beginning, and I was going to give everything for it." ”
In fact he finally did, and when he left the Grizzlies, general manager Wallace said he was "the best player on the team," and he managed to take off his tumor coat, and you could even say he was the most successful star ever "transformed," 36, as he put it: "I've come a long way." "And all of this, the fans are looking at.