MEMPHIS–During the waning moments of last night’s Memphis Grizzlies home game
against the Miami Heat, rumors emerged via social media that the Grizzlies had
agreed to a three-way trade with the Washington Wizards and Phoenix Suns.
According to multiple reports, the Grizzlies would be receiving Kelly Oubre from
the Wizards, and in return the Grizzlies would be sending out Wayne Selden and a
swingman. Exactly which swingman? Well, that’s where things got a bit… weird.
Some reports had Grizzlies forward Dillon Brooks in the deal, while other
reports pointed to Grizzlies forward MarShon Brooks.
Which Brooks was it? The Suns appeared to think they were receiving Dillon. The
Grizzlies offered MarShon.
Just as fast as news of the trade had spread across social media, word started
spreading that the deal was off, setting the stage for a night that social media
was made for, featuring plenty of anonymous quotes, jokes and memes. This
morning, word broke that the Wizards and Suns had agreed to a different version
of the deal, while the Grizzlies will keep both of their Brooks brothers.
I spoke to Grizzlies General Manager Chris Wallace earlier today to download the
lowdown on the trade that didn’t go down.
Grind City Media: So what exactly what happened last night?
Chris Wallace: We had been dealing with Washington in the trade (involving
MarShon Brooks & Wayne Selden) and as soon as Dillon Brooks was mentioned in the
trade, it stopped. I’m not sure where the other parties got Dillon from, but
they didn’t get it from us. Once he was requested, then that was the end of
that.
Grind City Media: But it sounded as though their request for Dillon came as
something of a surprise?
Chris Wallace: I didn’t expect that request to come at all. We had a deal on our
end with everything that was involved and we were moving accordingly, and then
it didn’t happen.
Grind City Media: There were reports on social media that the player’s medical
information had already been exchanged?
Chris Wallace: We did not exchange any medicals on our players. To give you a
little background on the process, that probably would be just a touch early to
begin with plus any requests or sharing of medicals would create a paper trail
and there is no trail. Regardless, we did not send out any medicals on our
players.
Grind City Media: There were also reports that Memphis pulled out of the trade,
that Memphis got cold feet.
Chris Wallace: No, we didn’t pull out of the deal. I’ve been doing this for over
thirty years with seven different teams, and have never pulled out of a trade
once we felt the trade was agreed to. Now, as you well know, the trade is not
officially consummated until it gets to the NBA League Office and all parties
involved sign off on it, but that is generally just a formality because
everything is done, plus we have salary cap people on every team who know what
works and what doesn’t under the cap. That’s where your biggest issues come from
sometimes, maybe there’s something cap-related teams don’t know until they get
to the actual trade call. But we felt there was a deal there, and we certainly
did not pull out. We were very clear about who we were including in that trade
and had a number of people on the call to corroborate.
Grind City Media: Had the team owners talked about this trade?
Chris Wallace: No, they had not. I can’t speak for Washington’s end of it, and I
can’t speak for what Phoenix did. But on our side, Robert Pera was not involved
in the talks with the other teams.
Grind City Media: The timing of the whole thing was strange, because the news
was breaking as the fourth quarter of the Grizzlies/Heat game was happening.
Chris Wallace: The deal was leaked by another organization to the media and it
broke in-game, and that exacerbated the situation. I do my best to make certain
when there’s a trade, that we’re the ones telling our players, that they’re not
getting it from some other source. Now, that is extremely difficult in this day
and age, when so many things leak to the media, and we’re obviously in the era
of social media. So that necessitated me grabbing MarShon and Wayne postgame
very quickly, to tell them what was going on, and then after all this hell broke
loose and the deal fell apart, then I had to grab them individually before they
left the arena to tell them, “No, you’re not being traded.” Obviously that’s
awkward, and I’d prefer that not occur, but we had to deal with those guys at
that point in time or they’d get on their phones after the game and certainly
someone would have told them.
Grind City Media: So what happens next? How do you move forward?
Chris Wallace: We’re still happy to have our guys. The other two teams appear to
be consummating the bigger piece of the trade in their mind, so they certainly
weren’t harmed by this situation. I’ve been through all sort of stuff in trades
before–things like flunked physicals–and life does move on. I used to work
with the late, great Red Auerbach, and he had a great line: “Some of the best
deals you make are the ones you don’t make.” We like our team, like our players.
You’re always looking to improve. Although this did not come to pass, we will
move forward with both Wayne and MarShon. Both have played well recently and we
expect them to keep up that level of performance.
Player: Dillon Brooks
Player: MarShon Brooks
Media Content:
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e-that-wasn-t-181215
Media Keywords: NBA, Sports, Memphis Grizzlies, Dillon Brooks, MarShon Brooks,
Memphis Grizzlies
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Taxonomy: Grind City Media, Lang Whitaker, Chris Walace
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