"It's amazing how from when I got here to where we are now," Randolph says. "The fans have embraced us. The city's behind us. The games are crowded and almost sold out. I love this city. I can relate to them. If they trade me tomorrow, I'm still going to be in Memphis. I'm still going to be paying people's utility bills from wherever I'm at. It's always going to be my city."
For Gasol, this is the only way it can be.
"I don't think there's another way to play basketball," he says. "When you play in a city, you have to play for the people that are there. You're representing them everywhere you go. When you play in Denver, or L.A., you have Memphis across your chest.
I think when you play with that pride and know you're representing people at home, you play with a different mindset. It doesn't matter, it's not about you, it's about your team and the people back home."
That's the story of Memphis' rise to a Western power. All heart, grit grind, the blue-collar city with the blue-collar brothers down low.
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