It’s hard not to feel bad for the Grizzlies right now. Even though they’re in the NBA Playoffs, there's absolutely no way they're going to beat the Spurs in their best-of-7 series since they’re missing two of their best players—Marc Gasol and Mike Conley—due to injury. But despite those injuries, they'll still come out and play hard every single night.
That didn’t stop Reggie Miller from taking a shot at the team during an interview on The Dan Patrick Show yesterday. He said that he thinks a team consisting of himself, Kenny Smith, Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal, Chris Webber, and Ernie Johnson would defeat the team that Memphis is putting out on the floor right now.
“Without Conley and without Gasol,” he said, “I think we could give the Grizzlies a run right now.”
Grizzlies star Zach Randolph found out about what Miller had to say today, and he responded by saying that he doesn’t appreciate it.
“Yeah, I do [take it personally],” he told reporters. “I know he was probably joking, but we work hard and we’ve been through a lot. We’re not whining or nothing. We go out every night and play hard with what we got.”
Randolph also said that, shorthanded or not, the Grizzlies are going to fight for wins when they take the court.
“It has a lot to do with pride,” he said. “Even though we are short. Pride is playing hard and leaving it all out there on the court so the fans and everybody else can say, ‘You know what? These guys gave it all they got under the circumstances.’”
Miller is set to call the Grizzlies’ game against the Spurs tonight, so it’ll be interesting to see if he addresses Randolph’s comments on the air. Either way, he did kind of kick Memphis while they’re down, and we’d expect Memphis to work even harder than usual to try and prove Miller wrong.
Send all complaints, compliments, and tips to sportstips@complex.com.
[via My San Antonio]
