Memphis Grizzlies: Dave Fizdale Rants on Officials

Dave Fizdale stole the spotlight with a fiery postgame press conference. Yelling “take that for data!” to end the conference. Memphis Grizzlies lose by 14.

So, we could talk about the debacle that was Game 2…OR WE COULD TALK ABOUT FIZDALE GOING OFF IN THE POST-GAME PRESSER…

Yeah, I thought the presser was more exciting, too. Before Coach Fizdale started to list off the free throw statistics between the teams, earn his ‘amount YTBD’ fine, he commended his team’s second half effort against San Antonio – as he should.

The Memphis Grizzlies lack the firepower to keep up with the Spurs, but have continued to keep the games close through their only sources of offense. The Grizz have Game 3 at home, but they need the bench to produce. Mike Conley, Marc Gasol, Vince Carter and Zach Randolph can only do so much.

Doesn’t matter, let’s break down the press conference.

The Build Up

Six seconds in Fizdale sits down rubbing his hands together. Most likely picturing the room of reporters faces when he drops his Fiz-bomb….Orrrr, he’s actually mad. Yeah, looks pretty mad.

He talks aimlessly for a few seconds in response to the first question, but then a switch hits.

“Whatever.”

Fizdale utters a simple word, and now the entire room hesitates to ask the fuming coach another question. Oh, it’s about to get good.

First of all, sports reporters talk too much as it is, and Fizdale cuts this next one off beautifully with a bold “Maybe.” Then he deflects, basically giving the reporter zero answers to his question. Well played, Fizdale.

Maybe this is just me, but if you can hear the coach breathing through the mic, signifying that he might be mad, and even says, “…when I cool off.” Let them go. I doubt you would want to immediately have 16 writers ask you questions about why you had rough day at work. Then, proceed to ask you what you need to do better next time. He already said he wants a glass of wine, but NO go ahead ask another ground-breaking question that just CANNOT wait.

Detonation in 10…

“How important was that? The way you came back towards the—“

Fizdale rightfully interrupts this reporter’s needless question, before going on a Mike Conley tangent, readying himself for the injustice he’s about to unveil. He gets his list of stats in eyeshot and dives in. Gracefully slipping, but never losing focus. (You have eyes, if you want the stats, go look them up, re-watch the video, or click here: I AM LAZY )

Anyway, he makes his point, looks around to the blank stares from the media, hears his cue to leave, then drops a “take that for data!” as he swipes at his notecard and leaves. At that moment, the NBA started to take Dave Fizdale seriously as an NBA coach.

Hot take: Fizdale gets thrown out of Game 3.

Take what you want from that, but Fizdale was angry, and now I’m angry. Even though I did not notice that horrible of officiating, other than a few particular instances. Sometimes teams just foul less than others and it makes sense. San Antonio plays great, all-around defense. The Grizzlies play a rougher style. It’s not that far-fetced if you think about it, but Kawhi Leonard shooting more free throws than all of Memphis is a conspiracy theory beyond me. Let’s just hope the Grizz can play as angry as Fiz. But like a good angry.

Re-crap

The officiating was poor in some sense, but the Memphis Grizzlies didn’t lose this game because of officiating. When four players are taking 73 percent of your shots, you need more than sixteen points from that last 27 percent (22 shots). That’s across six other (players not named Marc Gasol, Zach Randolph, Mike Conley and Vince Carter) players. Removing Vince Carter means Gasol, Conley, and Randolph are still taking 62 percent of the shots (51 of the 82). Marc Gasol had a poor shooting night, but that doesn’t change the fact that the Grizzlies’ secondary scorers MUST STEP UP HERE ON OUT. You don’tt win playoffs games without bench scoring. One promising thing to take from this, JayMychal Green DEFINITELY won’t cost as much anymore.

Before You Think About Who To Blame…

Future note: I’ll make this easy. As Not-A-Grizzlies fan, I’ve noticed Grizzlies fans like to blame people. There’s nothing wrong with that. As a Knicks fan, I see it too often. So, I have made you a list of who to blame for last night’s loss.

Chris Wallace – Whatever he thought would win, didn’t, hasn’t, and won’t.

There ya go. Remember, always blame the owner. He’s the one who pulls the strings.

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