Mike Conley is excited to chase a championship with the Utah Jazz both this season and going forward. Reflecting on the longest chapter of his NBA career finally coming to a close, though, the veteran floor general made it clear that he'll never forget the Memphis Grizzlies.
“Memphis made me. I always say that. The experiences I had in that city and with those fans made me,” Conley said in an interview with HoopsHype's Alex Kennedy. “Accolades aside, the things that we accomplished aside, we grew up there. We were kids. We were 19 years old and we had to learn so much. That city helped groom us into who we are, especially myself, and I love all of the memories that we created.”
Conley spent the first 12 seasons of his career in Memphis after being selected with the No. 4 overall pick of the 2007 draft. The Grizzlies made the playoffs every year from 2011 to 2017, gritting and grinding all the way to the Western Conference Finals in 2013 before being swept by the San Antonio Spurs.
Though they won just two other postseason series excluding their 2013 run, Conley is clearly proud of what he and his teammates accomplished in Memphis – even last season, after Tony Allen and Zach Randolph had moved on and Marc Gasol was dealt at the trade deadline, leaving the Grizzlies as one of the league's worst teams.
“Man, it was just [special]. All of those playoff runs and even the years we didn’t make the playoffs,” he said. “Like last season, I might have had the most fun just because I was around guys who really gave everything they had and, even if we didn’t win, those were some of the best teammates I’ve had over the years.”
Conley, Rudy Gobert, Donovan Mitchell and and the Jazz are considered serious contenders this season in the wide-open Western Conference.
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