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Everyone knows you can’t have a hero without a villain, and getting the chance to root against (or, depending on where your allegiances lie, for) The Bad Guys is a fundamental aspect of sports fandom.
The NBA has been home to plenty of teams that fans have loved to hate, like the “Bad Boys” who comprised the Detroit Pistons roster in the late 1980s and early ’90s and the trio of ring-chasings superstars that made up the “Big Three” that formed when LeBron James, Chris Bosh, and Dwyane Wade joined forces in Miami.
This season, a new antagonist has emerged courtesy of the Memphis Grizzlies, as the team has been at the center of an impressive amount of drama in recent weeks.
At the end of January, Memphis found itself at the center of a fairly bizarre stat-padding “scandal” around the same time Ja Morant’s father Tee got into a heated argument with Shannon Sharpe during a game in Los Angeles.
February has been arguably even rockier, as Dillon Brooks was suspended after sparking a massive brawl with a below-the-belt cheap shot at Donovan Mitchell’s expense last week before the Grizzlies were once again embroiled in controversy due to a report concerning an alleged altercation involving the Pacers’ team bus.
There’s plenty of blame to go around, and while Morant has disputed the framing of that last incident, it’s still hard to deny Memphis’ star guard has played a role in attracting some of the negative attention that he bemoaned in a recent interview.
According to Drew Hill of The Daily Memphian, Morant asserted the Grizzlies have become the “most hated team in the NBA” while accusing the national media of spending an inordinate amount of time focusing on the franchise’s various woes.
Ja Morant 2/2
"I feel like we wasn't the only team on a losing streak, but we are the only ones mentioned."
— Drew Hill (@DrewHill_DM) February 7, 2023
Hill clarified Morant wasn’t necessarily complaining about the Grizzlies’ newfound reputation. However, it does seem like he’s attempting to position himself and the rest of the team as victims of a supposed vendetta while minimizing the role he and the rest of the team have played in giving reporters plenty of juicy stories to cover.
At the end of the day, we could see the Grizzlies use the “Us Against The World” mentality to their advantage, and they (as well as NBA fans) could arguably benefit by fully embracing the role of the villain.
I guess we’ll just have to see how things unfold from here.