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  MikeCheck: Nuggets-Heat NBA Finals sprinkled with players, coaches connected by Grizzlies ties

  One was a former Memphis lottery pick who never played a game for the Grizzlies.

  Two others once arrived as rookies, respectively, and learned the rigors of the NBA as members of the Grizzlies during their first few seasons in the league.

  A couple more passed through Memphis as role players added to help elevate the Grizzlies higher into contender status in the Western Conference.

  And yet another recently received one of the highest post-career honors the franchise annually bestows on legendary figures from throughout the sports world.

  Kevin Love, Kyle Lowry, Darrell Arthur, Jeff Green, Ish Smith and Caron Butler all have at least one thing in common while vying for a championship in their respective roles with the Nuggets and Heat. Their paths to this year’s NBA Finals routed them through Memphis along the way. 

  Those journeys have included pivotal stints for former Grizzlies now on the NBA’s biggest stage.

  

  “No matter what you’ve gone through to get here, you just try to learn something from it every step of the way,” said 15-year NBA veteran Jeff Green. “I can’t take credit for being around this long. It’s by the grace of God, really. But all our focus has been on the now, what we’re trying to accomplish now in the present time and making the best out of this right now.”

  Right now, Green, 36, is on the cusp of a potential breakthrough he’s waited his entire career to reach. He’s a key reserve on a Nuggets team that entered Game 5 on Monday closing in on the first NBA championship in their franchise’s history.

  It’s a familiar role for Green, who has been a talented role player throughout his well-traveled NBA career, which included stints with 11 different teams since he was drafted in 2007. Midway through Green’s career, there was a 98-game stretch in Memphis that spanned parts of two seasons from 2014 to 2016, when he averaged 12.4 points and 4.4 rebounds.

  

  Green arrived in Memphis in a trade from Boston to bolster the Grizzlies depth a year after they reached the Western Conference finals at the height of the Grit’N’Grind era. But struggles to mesh with those Grizzlies teams, along with debilitating injuries to catalysts Marc Gasol and Mike Conley during those two seasons derailed Memphis’ progress.

  Almost a decade later, Green now finds himself playing alongside another dynamic point guard-center tandem in its prime and with global appeal in Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic.

  Green sees commonalities between the respective duos, but one drastic change involves the supporting role he plays. In Memphis, Green was counted on to be a frontline contributor and double-figure scorer each night. But now in Denver, he’s simply a veteran voice who fills in when needed off the bench to spark the team.

  

  In every Denver victory in the Finals, a key role player or reserve produced a breakout effort. Further down on that Nuggets bench is backup point guard Ish Smith, who has played for 13 different NBA teams, which included a 15-game layover in Memphis early in his career.

  With Memphis again ranked as a top-five television market in NBA Finals viewership ratings, local fans are getting glimpses of recognizable players who once suited up for the Grizzlies.

  Included in that number is also Arthur, who moved into the Nuggets front-office this season after five seasons on the court with Denver. Grizzlies’ fans would remember Arthur as the 6-9 forward and first-round draft pick in 2008 who spent his first four NBA seasons with Memphis after winning a national championship at Kansas.

  

  For Love, 34, the chance to actually play for the Grizzlies never materialized that same year. Drafted fifth overall by the Grizzlies from that 2008 class, the productive power forward was traded to Minnesota in a deal that ultimately landed guard OJ Mayo in Memphis.

  Love, who would eventually win a championship with the Cavaliers, signed with the Heat earlier this year after he was bought out by Cleveland following the February trade deadline. As a veteran with size and three-point shooting, Love was inserted into Miami’s starting lineup in the Finals, but proved no answer for slowing a historic run for Jokic, Denver’s two-time league MVP.

  With the Heat falling into a 3-1 series hole in the Finals, teammate Kyle Lowery is relying on the resilience and fortitude that took root in Memphis to help Miami regroup and respond.

  

  Now 17 years into his NBA career, which included winning a title with Toronto in 2019, Lowry reflected on the hard lessons and resolve he learned as a rookie point guard with the Grizzlies.

  Lowry, 37, was limited to just 10 games as a rookie with Memphis in 2006 after breaking his wrist a month into the season. He came back the following year to play in all 82 games with Memphis, but was traded in his third season after the Grizzlies drafted Conley as the team’s point guard.

  Looking back following a recent workout at the Finals, Lowry believes the roller-coaster ride he was on during those initial seasons provided necessary lessons to survive and thrive in the NBA.

  

  “That second year in Memphis was huge for me, even to this day,” said Lowry, who averaged nearly 10 points and four assists in 26 minutes during that 2007-08 season. “I think it was just coming back . . . and the thing about longevity is figuring out how to adapt, take care of your body, understand what an NBA season is, how to train in the offseason, how to eat, how to get your rest and recovery and being able to adjust who you are to grow, mature-wise.”

  Lowry would blossom into a six-time NBA All-Star and 2016 Olympic Gold medalist with Team USA. Still, his decorated career has included plenty of turbulent moments along the way as he transitioned from Memphis to Houston to Toronto before arriving in Miami a season ago.

  Overcoming odds is nothing new for Lowry, which is why he’s convinced the Heat can rally in this series against the Nuggets.

  “There are going to be times when you’re down here (low), and then you’ll go up (high) and then been here (middle ground),” Lowry said as he raised and lowered his arms for emphasis. “You have to have the humility to say you have to work at different things and be willing to accept different roles in different situations at different times.”

  And that’s a valuable vantage point for many, including Butler.

  

  As an assistant on Erik Spoelstra’s staff with the Heat, Butler cherishes the perspective he gained from his experience in Memphis three years ago as he was transitioning into coaching. The Grizzlies were not one of the nine teams Butler played for during his 14-year NBA career.

  But for the two-time NBA All-Star, it was his relentless work in communities throughout the league that garnered his reputation as a role model among players, coaches and executives.

  Butler considers 2020 as one of the most important years of his professional career. That year started when he came to Memphis and joined NFL Super Bowl MVP quarterback Doug Williams and basketball Hall of Famers Robert Parish and Sheryl Swoopes as recipients of the National Civil Rights Museum’s Sports Legacy Award. Later that year, Butler accepted a position on the Heat’s coaching staff and is now in his third season. 

  

  “People always ask me how the transition has been going for me, from being a player to broadcasting in the booth to now coaching on the sidelines,” Butler told Grind City Media at the Finals. “Part of it is about understanding everyone’s ‘why.’ When you’re dealing with people, you have to try to understand the full person who is in front of you.”

  Butler said winning the award in Memphis during the Grizzlies MLK Jr. Celebration Weekend helped shed a brighter light on what he represents beyond the game of basketball. It’s opening doors for relationships he’s establishing to this day.

  “Once I received that award, it highlighted that platform I was on in Memphis and beyond – it was great,” Butler said. “From that point on, everybody started looking at the body of work and what you’re attached to, what you were doing, how you were changing and impacting lives. It served a purpose for me in this work on the sidelines with players who are our future leaders.”

  Few markets in the country are as tuned into these NBA Finals as Memphis.

  The ratings prove as much. 

  It helps when the Nuggets and Heat have familiar faces with Grizzlies ties.

  Michael Wallace
  Published on Jun 12, 2023

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