How Marc Gasol helped the Memphis Grizzlies acquire Kennedy Chandler

How Memphis Grizzlies legend Marc Gasol gave the team one final parting gift

Time is a flat circle. The Memphis Grizzlies are actualizing that famous doctrine espoused by Friedrich Nietzsche and recently popularized by Matthew McConaughey’s character in Season One of the TV show True Detective.

The Grizzlies once upon a time agreed to a trade that netted them a former Memphis-based high school player drafted in the second round of an NBA Draft.

That player was Marc Gasol, who came to the Grizzlies via a trade with the Los Angeles Lakers in February 2008.

Fast-forward to 2022 and wouldn’t you know it— the Grizzlies agreed to a trade that netted them a former Memphis-based high school player drafted in the second round of an NBA Draft.

This time, it’s Kennedy Chandler, who was acquired from the San Antonio Spurs with a future second-round pick and cash.

It’s just come to light that the “future second-round pick” the Grizzlies sent to the Spurs is the draft pick acquired when the Lakers traded Marc Gasol back to Memphis in September 2021 in a salary-dump— the Los Angeles Lakers’ 2024 second round pick.

It’s sort of poetic, isn’t it?

That the Lakers once upon a time traded Gasol to the Grizzlies as an afterthought in 2008, only to do it again in 2021 is one thing. But to accrue and use the 2024 second-round pick gained in the trade to acquire another local high school favorite just confirms that time really is a flat circle.

History has a tendency to repeat itself— good and bad.

No one is expected Kennedy Chandler to be a franchise-changing player like Gasol was. But, the parallels to the story are uncanny.

The young point guard is undeniably talented. In fact, he very well may become one of the steals of the 2022 NBA Draft.

But, even if he doesn’t pan out, the opportunity for Chandler to launch his professional career in Memphis and give back to the community will have been a risk well worth taking.