Game 3, Grizz v Thunder at home in the FedEx Forum

This is the best article for you to read if you are at all interested in thy this game is so meaningful or why the Grizzlies are so much fun to cheer on.

Instead, Durant’s greatness creates more of a sour taste. Memphis has never had a player like Durant, perhaps never will. And yet Durant is all Thunder fans have ever known. Grizzlies fans, and the players they love most, often feel like they’ve come up the hard way. Thunder fans, they think, have had it too easy. 

The fan cultures also seem so different in these small, middle-American markets. 

Oklahoma City’s crowd acts more orderly. Everyone dutifully puts on their themed T-shirts, bearing sincere, agency-sublimating slogans. 

Memphis’ crowd seems more unruly. The Grizzlies used to try T-shirts come playoff time -- the “white-outs” and “blue-outs” and what have you -- but had to spend too much time before games shaming reluctant fans into putting them on. The lockstep look didn’t fit, especially with unofficial Tony Allen T-shirts erupting into a local cottage industry. People preferred the towels. They lend themselves to more boisterous, physical expression.