Walkin' in Memphis: West Joins Grizz

MJ in a Wizards uniform. Hakeem suiting up for the Raptors. Ewing in anything other than orange and blue. Now after 40 years in various capacities with the Lakers, Jerry West is taking the reigns of the Memphis Grizzlies.

The Grizzlies will announce the hiring of West as the team's president of basketball operations Tuesday, ESPN's David Aldridge reports.

A news conference is planned for 3:30 p.m. ET in Memphis, and according to Chris Broussard of the New York Times West is expected to receive a multi-year deal reportedly worth $5 million to $8 million per year.

West will take over a rebuilding situation in Memphis with hopes of turning a franchise considered the worst in the NBA since entering the league in 1995. He will hope to quickly transform the Grizzlies in a similar fashion that he did the Lakers in 1996 when he signed Shaquille O'Neal and traded Vlade Divac for high schooler Kobe Bryant in the same off season. But those Lakers had history and glamour behind them as drawing cards, all Memphis has is.. well.. West and the franchise-best 23-59 record it earned this season.

West will not actually start with nothing. He will have a high draft pick, providing the Grizzlies do not drop to sixth (the lowest they can drop to – need Chicago, Golden State and themselves to all fall out of the top three). He also has Rookie of the Year Pau Gasol, the Spanish sensation who stunned the NBA this year with his well rounded play, and fellow All-Rookie first teamer Shane Battier.

With West now aboard current team president Dick Versace will now become the team's General Manager, slotting into the place vacated by the firing of Billy Knight earlier this month.

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Memphis Grizzlies, Los Angeles Lakers

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Horry comes up big

The Los Angeles Lakers have done it again. With four seconds left in the third game of their series against the Portland Trail Blazers, the team leading 2-0 but down 91-89 in this one, Kobe Bryant found an unmanned Robert Horry all alone in the corner who rose and nailed the game winning three. The shot not only one the game for the Lakers but also closed out another sweep of the Blazers, their second straight in the opening round and third overall ousting of league’s most expensive team.

"I guess we have (the Blazers') number," Bryant said. And on Horry’s shot?

"Cash," Bryant said. "It's hard to describe what it feels like when the ball is floating through the air like that, and you know it's going in. All I was thinking was, `Cash.' "

"I was kind of scared, I just threw it up there," Horry said, smiling the whole time. "It was actually designed for Kobe to try to penetrate and get a 2, we were just trying to tie the game up. But Pippen bit a little too far and Kobe kicked it to me

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Los Angeles Lakers, Portland Trail Blazers

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Blazers fail to heed Cheek’s words

Throughout the first two games the Portland Trail Blazers plan has been to get the ball inside to Rasheed Wallace. So far the players have failed to listen to coach Maurice Cheeks’ instructions, instead settling for jumpshot after jumpshot as the team dropped the opening two games to the defending two-time Champion Lakers.

"Jump shot after jump shot," Cheeks told the Oregonian newspaper. "For three days [between Games 1 and 2], we practiced posting up, then the day comes for us to actually do it and we don't do it. We shoot jump shots. That part is puzzling to me."

The team has made 62 of 162 shots (38.3%) with Bonzi Wells and Damon Stoudamire being the biggest factors. Wells is seven for 23 in the first two games of the series and Stoudamire is two for 15.

"They have had wide-open shots, but they just haven't made them," Cheeks said. "All you can do is keep putting the ball in their hands and keep letting them take the same shots."

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Portland Trail Blazers, Los Angeles Lakers

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