So Hard to Say Goodbye: Three Favorite Memories from Courtney Lee’s Tenure as a Memphis Grizzly

1. The Buzzer Beater to Beat All Buzzer Beaters

The Sacramento Kings clobbered the Grizzlies for the majority of this game. Sacramento built a 26-point lead, and former Grizzly Rudy Gay heaped salt into the wound with 25 points that included a highlight-worthy tomahawk slam in transition. After looking lost on the court for over a half of the game, the Grizzlies chipped away at the lead in the second half then accelerated the comeback with a furious fourth quarter run that included a trio of huge three-point bombs from Vince Carter, including one that made the palpitating excitement boil over into hype level MemphCon 2.

As is often the case during the best moments of exuberant cacophony at Grizzlies home games, the FedExForum was rocking with fans shouting, dancing, Holy rolling, and generally losing their minds while Tag Team’s “Whoomp there it is” fed the frenzy. After trailing for so long, when Mike Conley’s three pointer fell through the net to give the Grizz a 109-108 lead, the bloodthirsty crowd erupted into near delirium. The Kings called a time out to recuperate, and sadly, the Memphis lead only lasted the length of a partial playing of the  Gap Band’s “You Dropped a Bomb On Me,” because the Kings came out of time out and nonchalantly reclaimed the lead like that epic rally never happened. 

A few ticks later, the Grizzlies got the ball back down by one, with one final hope of drawing up some kind of play that would allow a player to score in under three tenths of a second. Enter Courtney Lee.

As with the last second heroics against Phoenix this season, it wasn’t like Lee just showed up and crashed the party on the game’s final play: he played well throughout and was key to the comeback. C-Lee earned three steals, three assists, and 14 points in the first 47 minutes and 59.7 seconds of the game, but it was the bucket for his 15th and 16th points scored at the game’s expiration that will survive as one of the most cherished memories in recent Grizzlies history.

When Vince Carter took the ball on the sideline for the inbounds, it appeared the other four Memphis players on the floor ran Dave Joerger’s set play to perfection as Courtney Lee came wide open curling towards the hoop. Carter’s pass sailed through the air in Lee’s direction, and though unguarded, Lee still faced the difficult task of catching the pass while in mid-air and then almost instantaneously releasing the shot while contorting his body back towards the rim. The lay-up kissed the glass then ever so slowly rolled on the rim before falling through the net, sending the home crowd into an unfettered and purely euphoric jubilation that could not conceivably exist during regular season game on a weeknight in November. 

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With the exception of the Grizzlies’ 2011 game-six playoff win against the San Antonio Spurs, I don’t think I’ve ever attended another Grizzlies game that incited this much supercharged bliss. No hyperbole or exaggeration here. When we were leaving the arena a man practically sprinting out of FedExForum towards Silky O’Sullivan’s yelled “THAT WAS BETTER THAN THE BIRTH OF MY SON!” True story. I personally don’t have any children, and I hope I would at least wait for the Grizzlies to win a game in the Finals before making such a proclamation, but no judgement here. It was a night to remember.

On behalf of that proud father, and on behalf of Grizzlies fans everywhere, thank you Courtney, and best of luck in Charlotte.