The fact that Zach randolph is not on the all star ballot is an embarrassment to the league
I wish white chocolate would have choke slammed Geoff Calkins back in the day when Calkins kept giving him ****. I think he near beat his *** in the locker room after a loss one night where Calkins kept pressing him. Anyhow, you're right, the local media will constantly tear down everything the Grizzlies do. You can tell they are just hoping the Griz start losing again so they can print their (most likely, already written) "I told you so" articles.
I still don't know why they got so much **** for picking up Z-bo in the offseason. They had the cap space and a way to get a proven 20/10 guy into the starting lineup. He addressed a huge need for the Griz. While the national media praises the move, the only thing you get from the Memphis media is the genes page-esque response of "he's a thug", "he has a history", "I heard he's a scientologist", etc. etc. etc. It's as if they didn't want the Grizzlies to improve the roster by making a good move.
Really, it's just an extension of the city's general outlook on everything in life. There is a constant "we can't do anything right, everything sucks" attitude that's present throughout the city. A lot of it is probably merited considering the devil himself, Willie Herenton, ran the place for so many years. It's not surprise that his negative attitude brought everyone else down and we still have the sour taste left in our mouth.
Bottom line, it's just damn sad that the city hasn't gotten behind the Grizzlies yet. They have a world class facility in the FedEx forum and it appears that Wallace's strategy of building a nucleus of young talent and developing them is paying off. They are a very exciting basketball team to watch and it's cheap as hell to buy a ticket. If Memphis can consistently sell out the Forum for Tigers games against mickey mouse teams like Austin Peay, then there is absolutely no reason the Forum shouldn't be filled up for Griz games where you can see the best basketball players in the world. The city has one good thing going for it, and it's too stupid to even realize it.