The Ja Morant era in Memphis began immediately after the long-term stint of the Grit and Grind Grizzlies. This is unlike most professional sports teams. Typically, when an NBA team loses the core of a successful group, that team enters the lottery over extended seasons. In Philly, it was called The Process. In Sacramento, it’s called the way things are. Whatever the name, the transition from playoff team with an identity, to the next phase of struggling and stacking up top draft picks, is a long-term strategy for small market teams like the Grizzlies.
Prior to the Grit N Grind era, Memphis had never had a professional sports presence before. The city had a young Pau Gasol. In the 80s there were the Memphis Showboats and for a short time, Bo Jackson played for the Memphis Chicks baseball team (the farm team for the Kansas City Royals), but Memphis is more known for Elvis, Bar-B-Que and the Blues. The core four, Z-Bo, Tony Allen, Marc Gasol and Mike Conley helped to make the Grizzlies a small market team with a true personality and enough success to endear Grit N Grind to our blue collar city.
Then Ja Morant fell into our laps in the draft and instead of a process like OKC and the Detroit Pistons, Ja walked in, supposedly a consolation prize in a draft with Zion Williamson and the city has been on fire. Ja’s arrival came at a time when Memphis rap was seeing a resurgence. Blocboy JB was dropping 901 with Drake. Moneybagg Yo and Young Dolph had established themselves as important cogs in Southern Hip-Hop and the University of Memphis basketball, Memphis’ original professional sports team, had hired Penny Hardaway to right the ship at a program that hadn’t made the NCAA Tourney in years and was losing so much money because of attendance that the school basically had to pay the FedEx Forum because they couldn’t get more than 2000 people in an arena that regularly sold out in the John Calipari era. Ja arrived like… Jah!
Ja Morant arrived and fused Allen Iverson and Derrick Rose’s games into a highlight reel that quickly made everyone forget that he was the consolation prize. Ja has been must see tv and this season Nike recognized what the city of Memphis realized from day one, Ja is that dude.
Nike arrived in the city to shoot the commercial spot above. The Swoosh didn’t hit Graceland. They didn’t focus on Bar-B-Que, they didn’t linger on Beale Street for long. In the video are locations that speak to the real soul of the city. Stax Museum shows up. While America sees Motown as the heart of American music, Stax Records was the soul. Jerry’s Sno-Cones, one of the best dessert joints in the south, makes an appearance. The small houses in South Memphis and local barbershops, along with a cameo by Moneybagg Yo, show an attention to detail about Memphis’ grit and grind blue collar mentality. It’s a solid job by Nike, for a player who was making a case for his first All-Star appearance before he was injured.
Does this mean Nike should be working on a signature shoe for Ja? Yes and No.
I have an extensive amount of writing on basketball shoes on this site. Take some time and just think of a topic around signature sneakers and do a search. It’s been a constant topic of discussion as sales of hoops shoes have continued to decline in the U.S. There isn’t a basketball player under Nike’s banner who could reinspire interest in the category in the U.S. BUT, big but, lol, Nike needs something fresh. Their current roster of athletes are no longer the draw they once were. The only time their shoes generate heat is when they are super limited. Nike is actually better at moving their own needle in basketball than their athletes. The most interesting shoe in recent years for Nike Basketball was this year’s release of the Nike Zoom GT Cut. That shoe had Ja’s name written all over it and would be a smart sneaker for the brand to connect to the young star. He wore Kobe’s for years. With that relationship not under contract, Ja has resorted to Kyrie’s and KD’s this season. Ja is so hot as a player the Memphis Grizzlies are considering building an entire sneaker platform around Ja. It would be the first organization to do this and that would generate a discussion about sneakers and performance that might grab the attention of new fans and ignite even more interest than the GT Cut demanded making the model hit resale. Ja has the right amount of everything needed to possibly get the U.S. excited about signature shoes again, but when sales are the way they are for basketball, it may not happen.
