On November 26, Beijing time, the annual Thanksgiving Day came, and the NBA game was a bye. But there is still a lot of news in the league, and former Grizzlies player Tony Allen took the initiative to apply to postpone the jersey retirement ceremony, and the reason for this is inevitably regrettable.
According to The famous American sports magazine "DIME" reporter Robbie Carland reported, Tony Allen proposed to the Grizzlies that the ceremony of retiring the No. 9 jersey scheduled for the Home Game against the Jazz on January 29, 2022, be postponed to next season.
Tony Allen's move was really helpless, not long ago, including him, 18 former NBA players were accused of defrauding insurance money, and the matter was full of storms, and to this day, it has not been calmed down. Although Tony Allen has paid $500,000 bail to regain his freedom, he only repays $70,000 of the $420,000 alleged fraud claims. Therefore, it is a good decision to retire the jersey after escaping the limelight.
On the 12th of next month, the Grizzlies will retire "Black Bear" Randolph's No. 50 jersey in a home game against the Rockets. By then, Randolph will be the first player in Grizzlies history to retire a jersey, while Tony Allen is second.
Some people here may have to ask, the Grizzlies have also been a team with a head and a face in recent seasons, why did they retire two jerseys? Because the Grizzlies were not wealthy, the team's predecessor was the Vancouver Grizzlies, which was founded in 1995 and moved to Memphis in 2001 to change its current name.
In the 1990s, the Grizzlies' performance was lackluster, until the new century selected Paul Gasol, which gradually increased competitiveness and made the playoffs several times. In 2011, under the leadership of the "black and white bears", they eliminated the Spurs 4-2 in the first round of the playoffs, taking the team's first-round victory in the playoffs and staging the fourth "black eight miracle" in NBA history.
So, Zach Randolph has made an indelible historical contribution, but it is surprising that Tony Allen was able to become the second player to retire the jersey, because "White Bear" Mark Gasol seems to be more qualified for this award.