The 5 Most interesting Grizzlies for the 2023-24 Season

4. David Roddy

Big Body Roddy has been a nice role player for the Grizzlies, so all respect and power to him. But I’m not here to talk about his NBA career. I want to know about his legendary high school athletic career.

Let me hit you with some stats: As a senior, he averaged 29.7 points-per-game as well as 16.6 rebounds, which is a grown-man stat line if I’ve ever seen one. I combed through the history of the NBA to find those numbers an NBA equivalent, and the closest I could get was Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s 1972 season, in which he averaged 30.2 points and 16.1 rebounds per game. Not bad.

But was Kareem also an all-state football player as his team’s star quarterback and receive Division 1 Football scholarship offers? Nope, but Roddy did. Or did Kareem win a Class A state title throwing the discus? Didn’t think so. I guess Kareem did lead his high school team to a 71-game winning streak, which… is solid but doesn’t measure up to the legendary career of Mr. Roddy.

Question: What is your favorite moment out of your whole high school career?

I can only imagine what he might say, but 29 points and 16 boards is a level of dominance that it must have been ugly for everyone else. Imagine you’re 14 years old, and just made your school’s varsity basketball team as a freshman. Go you! But then you have your first game of the season, and staring you down is Roddy, the senior who is about to take every shred of pride and joy you have about basketball, roll it into a ball, and dunk it ferociously on your head. What a feeling.