Greivis Vasquez, Placeholder

Greivis Vasquez hit the two biggest shots of his young career in Memphis' 133-123 triple-overtime loss Monday night. The first was less of a calculated buzzer beating three-pointer, but more of an assured 26-foot fling to force a second overtime. Vasquez struck again at the end of the second overtime, converting a three point play over Westbrook to put the Grizzlies up three, seconds after Westbrook had tied the game with a trey.

Durant, Westbrook, Gasol, and Randolph were all bigger stories in this game. They're better players for one, played more minutes, had a bigger impact on the game, and will continue to factor into the NBA's changing of the guard. But I couldn't help but focus on Vasquez -- for the simple fact that he'd nudged his way, once again, into uncharted territory. He was only playing because Mike Conley Jr. fouled out in the first overtime.

I thought back to Draft Day when Vasquez emerged from the paying crowd after David Stern announced the Grizzlies had selected him with the 28th overall pick. There was Vasquez again, crashing a party he wasn't invited to.



I looked back at the 2010 NBA Draft blog I wrote in June to see if Vasquez's appearance elicited the same response in me as it does today. Not surprisingly, Vasquez was little more than a footnote in my post. I was discussing why 14 of the first 15 draft pick were in attendance:

The NBA extended more invitations to players this year. Very possible, but if they were going to invite 15 or so, they might as well have invited 20 to include players like Greivis Vasquez who had to sit in the stands; the equivalent of flying coach.

Fitting because the announcers have also chosen to discuss Vasquez as a subplot of Kevin Durant's story; the second and less important piece of a "Cool Story Bro" anecdote. Durant and Vasquez played high school ball together in Maryland, and now they're playing against each other in the Playoffs! They used to be best friends and now they're enemies for a few weeks! This story probably isn't even brought up if Vasquez was high school teammates with BJ Mullens.

Make no mistake, the Grizzlies are a better team when Conley, not Vasquez, is on the floor. Conley runs the offense more proficiently, he finds the open man more often than not, and usually is not looking to score first. But Vasquez plays like a guy who bought his own ticket to the NBA Draft. He plays like every minute he's on the floor is a minute somebody is trying to take away from him. I like those kind of players. They deserve to force overtime once in a while too.