Who ordered yet another Marc Gasol-David Fizdale update, with extra salt?
Details surrounding the relationship between the All-Star center and the Memphis Grizzlies’ former head coach continue to trickle out in the aftermath of the latter’s firing. We know Gasol complained about being benched during the second half of Memphis’ Sunday loss to the Brooklyn Nets. We know the pair hadn’t really been speaking for the past 10 months.
And now, according to Bleacher Report’s Ken Berger, we know that Gasol, despite not playing an active role in Fizdale’s dismissal, considered the clipboard carrier a phony:
“Gasol had been chafing for a long time,” a person familiar with the player’s thinking told B/R. “He had two pretty good coaches in Dave and Lionel, and he felt this guy was a little bit of a [phony].”
To be clear, Gasol never asked the team to fire Fizdale or played any role in his demise, other than a circumstantial one, sources said. And the circumstances had gotten pretty bad.
“It got really nasty,” the person familiar with the team dynamics said. “It wasn’t this week, and it wasn’t just Gasol. This has been going on overlapping from last year, too.”