Memphis Grizzlies' Zach Randolph Still Hasn't Learned His Lesson

Zach Randolph is once again making headlines for the wrong reasons during the NBA lockout.

Originally, news broke via Stuart Tomlinson of The Oregonian that Randolph's home was searched on Sunday, August 21 after a drug-related assault that originally occurred on Saturday of James Ruben Beasley, a known marijuana dealer.

At that time, Randolph was not considered a suspect in the case.

Rick Bella of The Oregonian reported less than 24 hours after the original details leaked that Randolph had actually invited over a marijuana dealer that he had met aboard a charter cruise ship in Portland on Friday, August 19.

The purpose of the visit to his home was in order to sell (marijuana) to guests of Randolph's that the power forward had invited back to his home at the conclusion of the cruise party.

Although no drugs were found when police searched his residence after the shenanigans and Randolph does not profile as a suspect in the dealer's beating.

Beasley does admit to knowing the Grizzlies' forward, but he also told police that Randolph was not involved in the beating, which involved multiple pool cues being used as weapons against him.

Despite the fact that Z-Bo wasn't directly involved in the beatings, this news is extraordinarily troubling.

Randolph has had his run-ins with marijuana long before the most recent event, and this does nothing to debunk the thought that he's still struggling to distance himself from the substance at this point.

During his tenure with the Trail Blazers, Randolph got into trouble with the law for having loaded handguns in his car while racing, and the officers reported a strong odor of marijuana in his car.

In 2010, the undersized big man's name was tied to an Indianapolis drug ring and multiple vehicles registered under Randolph's name were seized by police as they investigated the role that they could've played in possible marijuana dealing.

What's even more troubling about this latest news is that upon Beasley's beating sustained at Randolph's home, Randolph allegedly "snatched" the marijuana away from Beasley "aggressively" because he thought that the pot was overpriced, according to comments from Beasley directly to KWG news in Portland, Oregon.

For what it's worth, Beasley's mother also re-affirmed the fact that Randolph and Beasley were friends, and that he shouldn't have let the beating happen.

What kind of people is Randolph surrounding himself with?

The Grizzlies just made a major investment in Randolph's future by signing him to a four-year, $71 million extension last season, and he needs to avoid situations like the most recent one if he's ever going to be worth that type of money.

With the NBA extremely likely to reduce payroll in the construction of a new Collective Bargaining Agreement, Randolph will become a very big part of the Memphis payroll moving forward.

He's going to need to assert himself as a leader both on and off the court in order to live up to his massive salary, and unfortunately, he hasn't proven capable of doing the latter just yet.

While there's certainly time for Randolph to improve his reputation off of the hardwood, it's getting hard to believe that he'll learn from his mistakes if he's still making the same ones that he made early in his career.

Randolph was once traded straight up by the Los Angeles Clippers to Memphis for Quentin Richardson.

Let's allow that to serve as a reminder that there's more than what we see on the court when evaluating Randolph's worth to his team.