The Memphis Grizzlies Are Clearly Dealing With An Injury Curse After Jaren Jackson Jr Got Hurt On Day 1 Of Training Camp
The 2023-24 NBA season was absolutely a season from hell for the Memphis Grizzlies. Not because they underachieved and had a disastrous season on the court, but because essentially their entire roster at one point or another ended up suffering serious injuries.
Ja Morant finally returned after his suspension, played 9 games putting up 25/5/8, and then boom. Out for the year with a shoulder injury.
Marcus Smart arrived for his first season in Memphis, played 20 games, and then boom. Out for the year with a rupture of the proximal interphalangeal joint central slip (his finger)
Luke Kennard, played only 39 games and dealt with knee issues.
Desmond Bane played only 42 games, dealing with back and ankle issues.
The list goes on and on when it comes to key rotation players getting hurt.
It was your typical turn your Playstation off and restart type of season for the Grizzlies, and in my opinion was the main factor in their drop from 51 wins and a 2 seed in 2022-23 to 27 wins and a 14 seed in 2023-24. Once the season ended you maybe thought OK, hopefully this injury shit is over. Perhaps the curse had finally been lifted now that we were entering a new league year.
Well, then GG Jackson, a player who burst onto the season last year as a very exciting young wing broke his foot earlier in the summer. Then once we got to Summer League, you had rookie Zach Edey look awesome in his debut only to sprain his ankle and basically miss the rest of the summer. Even when he came back briefly, he immediately sprained his other ankle.
Maybe you look at the sequence of these events and think they're all just random. No trend, no curse, just some shit luck. I suppose that could be true, but the evidence sure is becoming harder and harder to ignore. Don't believe me? May I present to you Day 1 of the Grizzlies training camp
As I said, there is some sort of injury curse surrounding this team right now. The longer the team ignores that and keeps chalking these injuries up to bad luck, the longer stuff like this is going to happen. You need to figure this shit out quickly because the NBA season opens in 20 days. Bring in Kyrie's sage, bring in a priest for an exorcism, do something. Because the West is as tough as it's ever been, and for the Grizzlies to get back into the top 3 in the West, they need their actual best players to be available.
With JJJ, a hamstring strain would scare the shit out of me as a fan. Quad/hamstrings can linger, especially if you rush your way back. We all saw what hamstring issues did to OG during the Knicks playoff run, so for that to potentially be the case with JJJ after just one practice, I mean what the hell? Can the injury bug fuck off already? With no JJJ available, this puts a ton of pressure on rookie (and injury risk) Zach Edey to be awesome and healthy right away, as well as Brandon Clarke who is working his way back from tearing his achilles. I would argue it was his injury a few years ago was the first victim of this alleged curse.
I don't care who your favorite team is, the one thing we should all be able to agree on is injuries are the fucking worst. All I want is to see everyone at full strength, especially at the start of the season. After a year from hell and traumatic Woj/Shams bomb after Woj/Shams bomb announcing another serious injury, I feel for Grizzlies fans. It has to be frustrating to go through all that bullshit last year, and now here you are on Day 1 and instead of excitement about a new season, you're already dealing with more injury bullshit, this time to arguably one of your most important players.
Let's hope it's not as bad as the team initially thinks, because a healthy JJJ is a two-way beast
but that's not really how curses work. I suggest bracing for the worst case scenario so you can be pleasantly surprised if you get a prayer, but seriously the Grizzlies have to do something. Wasting another year all because you couldn't figure out how to break an injury curse would be brutal.