Rumors of the Memphis Grizzlies potentially leaving the Bluff City are nothing new, but they’ve gotten louder in recent months on the heels of the franchise’s worst season in nearly a decade. NBA commissioner Adam Silver, however, recently explained that Memphians have nothing to worry about, but did offer up a suggestion for the team that some fans may be hesitant to commit to.
Silver recently joined the “Pardon My Take” podcast and, for the most part, delivered the Memphis-friendly message.
“[Memphis] has been a great market historically for the NBA, and there is amazing history in that city and amazing culture,” Silver explained on the podcast. “There’s no reason why the Memphis Grizzlies can’t be successful.”
He also noted that Grizzlies owner Robert Pera “has no interest in moving the team out of Memphis, he’s made that clear.”
Those comments from Silver are music to the ears of any Memphis resident and Grizz supporter, especially with LeBron James recently starting an onslaught of criticism towards the city in the scope of NBA destinations.
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Nobody in their right mind, including myself who lived in Memphis for years, would rank it in the top-half of NBA cities from a destination standpoint. What made James’ criticism more noteworthy, however, is that he specifically suggested the Grizzlies should move to Nashville.
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Silver doesn’t hate a scaled-down version of James’ idea, as he explained he’d “love” to see the Grizz play a few games in the Music City.
“Nashville is a city on the rise; there’s incredible things happening there,” Silver stated on the podcast. “If it were up to me, I would love for them to play a few games a year in Nashville and sort of be Tennessee’s team, to the extent that they can.”
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The San Antonio Spurs have experimented with a very similar idea that Silver floated, having played two ‘home games’ in Austin, Texas, over the past handful of years to expand their market. The Grizzlies taking a similar approach and playing two or so games in Nashville at Bridgestone Arena, home of the Nashville Predators in the heart of downtown, certainly wouldn’t hurt the franchise’s cause.
While vastly different cities in every imaginable aspect, Nashville and Memphis are separated by just 212 miles, and even with the many transplants who have moved to Tennessee’s capital city in recent years, it is still home to plenty of Grizzlies fans who would embrace a brief ‘homestand’ on Broadway.
