Conley spoke gently, but Hansen knew that things were not that simple. The game against the Cavaliers had already said enough.
He reached out and touched his chin.
This situation was indeed a bit tricky.
Randolph was truly talented, a formidable siege weapon, and he was indispensable to the Grizzlies.
You say without Randolph, beating the Cavaliers is easy, but can you beat the Lakers or the Spurs in the playoffs without him?
Kobe was crazy in the 05~06 season, yet he only managed to lead the team to the playoffs. It wasn’t until Gasol arrived that championship contention became a thing.
Hansen’s current abilities were not comparable to peak Kobe, making Randolph all the more important.
"Mike, what kind of person is Zack?" Hansen looked at Conley.
Earlier, Guy had called Randolph a "jerk," but to understand someone, listening to just one person is definitely one-sided.
"His temper is kind of bad, but he’s a good guy."
Hansen was then taken aback. The same person had received two entirely different assessments?
"Of course, this is just my personal opinion, because Zack doesn’t interact much with teammates off the court. I’m one of the few who can have a good conversation with him."
That made sense. What Guy had said might be factual; Randolph was a troublemaker when he was young, so that became his "label."
And if what Conley had said was also true, it implied that with age and experience, Randolph’s mindset had undergone a change.
That was quite normal too. Unlike James, whom everyone indulged, the doubts about Randolph never ceased. The label of "stats padder" followed him throughout his career.
Over time, either you get crushed by those voices or you’re forced to change.
"How did you arrive at ’not bad’?" Hansen wanted to understand more because it related to how he would interact with Randolph.
"He’s actually been ’misunderstood.’"
Hansen looked at Conley, all ears.
"I used to think he was a jerk too, because he broke Reuben Patterson’s eye socket. But when I talked to him about it, I thought he had a good reason."
Hansen’s eyes widened; Conley’s storytelling skills were comparable to O’Neal’s.
However, what Conley said next indeed fundamentally changed his perception of Randolph.
"Zack threw the punch at Patterson because Patterson was bullying Quint Wood. That punch was Zack standing up for Wood."
It sounded a bit like "Judge Bao boxing Western Deity" – it seemed Randolph was also a man of sentiment.
Just then, Joerger showed up at the locker room door.
He was startled to see Hansen all soaked and then called Conley over to watch the video.
Hansen went to shower in the locker room, then went down to the stadium’s first floor for breakfast.
While eating, he happened to bump into Wallace, who was also there.
He sat down directly opposite Wallace.
After some small talk, Hansen continued to seek confirmation: The source of thɪs content is 𝙣𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙡✶𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙚✶𝙣𝙚𝙩
"Chris, what kind of player is Zack?"
Wallace didn’t ask why Hansen was suddenly concerned about Randolph. Instead, after some thought, he gave his assessment:
"He lost himself once, but now he’s a good guy."
A somewhat similar, yet not identical answer to Conley’s.
"I brought him to Memphis because I knew a lot about his past,"
Wallace spoke confidently.
He also mentioned the incident with Randolph hitting Patterson, his account even more detailed than Conley’s.
"Reuben Patterson was famously a thug in Portland. At the time, Zack was just a sophomore player, and the post-game media reports were all against him. Without digging deeper, you wouldn’t know what really happened."
Hansen strongly agreed with this, knowing from his rookie season as James’s teammate just how damaging selective news reporting could be.
"But his temper is indeed bad. You know, no matter what, he shouldn’t have thrown punches at a teammate."
Hmm, Hansen put himself in the situation.
He felt that if he were Randolph, he would verbally provoke Patterson first. If the other party was a thug, they would surely not be able to resist striking first, and then it would be self-defense on his part, or, as they say in the United States, "stand your ground."
Of course, Wallace was also right. He was the general manager of the team; his perspective would definitely come from the standpoint of team unity.
"But he is also a man who has been through hardships, and I can understand why he became a person with a bad temper."
Trading for a "stats padder," troublemaker, and even "team bomb" known in the League, Wallace indeed did a lot of investigation.
Randolph’s start was a classic NBA star story in the United States. Born without knowing his father, he was raised solely by his mother.
His situation might have been even more tragic because there were three other younger siblings at home, and for a long time they had to rely on welfare to get by.
Randolph, as a child, had only one pair of jeans. The jeans got so dirty they became stiff, but he never washed them—it wasn’t that he didn’t like being clean. If he washed them, he’d have nothing else to wear. He even got a nickname from classmates, "Shell."
Eventually, unable to bear it, he stole pants from Walmart, got caught red-handed, and was sent to a juvenile detention center for a month.
Imagine that environment—a single mother juggling jobs to care for four kids. Apart from "surviving," what kind of education could those children receive?