Zach Randolph was Memphis, and that’s why the Memphis Grizzlies are retiring his number. He embodied everything Memphis: a hard-working, blue collar town with nothing given it to easy. 50, you impacted our city in so many different ways.
You took the raw talent of Mike Conley, Marc Gasol, and company to another level, providing a lottery team with its first franchise victory in the playoffs as an eighth seed. Not even the stellar mind of Coach Popovich and prime Tim Duncan could stop you.
Not only did you change our franchise, you changed. When you came here, you were known as a troublemaker, but that wasn’t the case when you arrived here.