Fandom Free Agency - #27 Memphis Grizzlies

This one was actually a little tough. I debated quite a few teams to be the next eliminated. The Jazz, Nets, Knicks and my eventual choice the Grizzlies were all up for consideration. All of those teams are officially on notice.

Then, I almost made tonight's Suns v. Hawks game on ESPN an elimination game for the Suns. I wanted a team that would do my bidding and if the Suns couldn't come through tonight and knock off the Hawks I was going to eliminate them. I decided not to do it.

The Suns would have been the first team I eliminated that had a member of my fantasy team on it, and my newfound love for Channing Frye helped move them off the chopping block. But the biggest reason the Suns were sparred from the guillotine was this video found on YouTube. How could I eliminate a team after watching that? That's a team to root for.

So, my string of not eliminating fantasy players continued but this elimination does come with a first. The Grizzlies are the first team I'm axing that have a former KU player on their team, Darrell Arthur.

DA is a tough guy to sacrifice too. A quick trip to Darrell's facebook Fan Page will surprise you when you look at who created the group. Yep, that's me.

This year though, Darrell hasn't even played a game for a surprisingly good Grizzlies team. Overall, I think it's fair to say Darrell has done more harm than good for the city of Memphis.

The elimination isn't Darrell's fault. It's his teammate's fault. I don't see one player on their active roster I'd like to root for except Rudy Gay, who won't even be around after this season. As for DeMarre Carroll, don't even go there.

Most of all though, I can't root for their GM Chris Wallace. I'll give some credit for putting together an OK team this season but this is the guy who screwed up the Iverson signing this offseason, drafted Hasheem Thabeet #2 overall and literally gave Pau Gasol to the Lakers a few years back.

Also, I said in the original post that I want a team I can root for in the playoffs and while the Grizz are doing OK this year, I don't think they'll make it. Even if they did, they would assuredly be swept in the first round. Little known fact is that the Grizzlies franchise has never won a playoff game, 3 appearances and they're 0-12.

Lastly though, I'd be a hypocrite for rooting for the Grizzlies after eliminating the Raptors. Obviously the Grizz aren't in Canada anymore, but their team nickname is just silly and has a lot of similarities to the Raptors silly team name. Like Toronto, Vancouver gave the Grizz a team color of Naismith Blue which, like Naismith Silver has an equal amount of dumb.

Also, when the original naming was being done one of the options was the Vancouver Mounties which obviously would have been incredible. Instead the team was named the Grizzlies and it stuck through their move to Memphis.

Obviously, there are no grizzly bears in Memphis barring an exhibit at what is apparently America's #1 Zoo. I just can't understand what prevents teams from changing their team name when they move to a new city. Apparently when the team was moving to Memphis, FedEx made a strong push to name the team the Memphis Express after their company but the NBA overruled the decision and they decided to stick with Grizzlies. Weak.

But don't be too down Memphis, you've still got that Zoo.

An even rarer sighting in Memphis than an actual bear.