The Memphis Grizzlies will increase Tony Allen’s No. 9 jersey to the rafters at FedExForum subsequent March, the workforce introduced Tuesday. Allen would be the third member of the Grizzlies’ “Core 4” to have his jersey retired; Zach Randolph’s No. 50 and Marc Gasol’s No. 33 had been the franchise’s first two retired numbers.
The jersey retirement ceremony will happen after Memphis’ recreation towards the Miami Warmth on March 15. Allen himself informed the Memphis Business Attraction’s Damichael Cole in Could that the workforce had informed him it might occur in the course of the 2024-25 season.
Allen performed within the NBA for 14 seasons, seven of them with the Grizzlies. He received a championship as a reserve with the Boston Celtics in 2008, however his finest years had been in Memphis. The workforce signed him away from Boston on a three-year contract in 2010; in 12 months 1, he took O.J. Mayo’s beginning spot, birthed the Grit-‘n’-Grind period with a basic quote in a walk-off interview and earned All-Protection honors for the primary time in his profession.
Throughout his tenure in Memphis, Allen was the hardest, most bodily perimeter defender on what was often the hardest, most bodily defensive workforce within the NBA. He made the All-Defensive workforce six instances, and was First Group for 3 of them. He’s second in Grizzlies historical past (behind solely Mike Conley) in steals, sixth in video games performed and, extremely for a guard, ninth in offensive rebounds.
The Grizzlies had been initially going to retire Allen’s jersey in the course of the 2021-22 season, weeks after they retired Randolph’s. This was postponed, nonetheless, in mild of Allen being charged in October 2021 for his function in a scheme to defraud the NBA’s well being and welfare advantages plan. That November, the workforce launched a video during which Allen says he requested to have his jersey retirement pushed again to the 2022-23 season. Allen pleaded responsible to conspiracy commit well being care fraud and wire fraud in April 2023, however reportedly paid a lot of the a refund. In August 2023, he was sentenced to group service and supervision, avoiding jail time.
