Pau Gasol-Kwame Brown Trade: Memphis Reacts

Fans in Memphis are certainly not happy.

The trading of Pau Gasol for Kwame Brown is getting worldwide attention, and the consensus is that Memphis got swindled, hornswaggled, bamboozled and ripped off.

Nowhere is this better accentuated than in Memphis where the CommercialAppeal.com leads with the headline:

"Gasol for what? The Grizzlies trade their best player to the Lakers for questionable talent and draft picks of little potential"

Well, to be fair, we don't know if those first round draft picks will have potential, right? Wrong, as the CommericalAppeal aptly points out:

"The Lakers' first-round picks in 2008 and 2010. Which will be so low in the first round as to be essentially worthless. The Phoenix Suns routinely sell their low first-round picks for cash. Other good teams spend them on players who will stay in Europe a few years and not clutter up their roster."

Maybe it's OK?

The Memphis-based SportsFrog offers, "The Pau Gasol Trade - The Memphis Perspective" this morning. From his point of view, getting Pau out of town was a good thing. He thinks the franchise is in a disastrous state right now because of ownership, but thought Gasol wasn't part of any future answer:

"He's remarkably flawed and miscast as franchise anchor. He's soft. He is not anywhere within range of the term "leader"....As for getting him out of Memphis? Bonus. The fanbase here had grown to loathe him. Booed every time he touched the ball of late. Too many years of whiny pleading Euro-looks to officials when he didn't get a call."

The Fans React

What are the fans saying? Back to the Commercial Appeal and you'll find reactions from all over the spectrum:

From the irreverent:

I did not know there was a NBA team in Memphis...wow. Best of luck to them.

To the sad...

Thank you Grizzlies, you have now shown all of us in Memphis that you have no desire to win any games or have anyone there at the games for that matter...why not take Chicago's deal last year for Gasol? Instead, we get......absolutely nothing....Great job guys....I'm not sure how much longer I can watch and root for this.

To the compassionate...

Good Luck Grizz. I feel for you. This is one of the best trades (for a Laker fan) in a long time. I had the bad luck to watch kwame for the last couple of years and he is probably the worst nba player I've ever seen. He's big, that's about it, absolutely no skill. The one up side you got is Crittenton, he does have some skill but you seem ok at point. Sorry but you just became a victim of an LA jacking (robbery).

To the flabbergasted...

The Lakers FLEECED the Grizz. The draft picks will be really low 1st round picks since the Lakers will be in the playoffs for years to come. Kwame Brown???? Are you kidding me? The consumate draft flop.The Grizz are the laughing stock of the league now.

To the suicidal...

WHAAAAAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What the f''k have MEMPHIS MADE???
Pau in exchange of Kwame BROWN, KWAME BROWN, !!!!!!KWAME BROWNN¡¡¡¡¡¡¡.....

Mr. Suicidal then offers the Grizzlies advice on how to best continue...

If you want to be the worst team in the world continue this way. Next trade Miller and JCN in exchange of Penny Hardaway and Olowokandi ok?????

To the Optimistic...

on the bright side, the tigers play tomorrow

To the business-oriented...

ATTENTION: all T-Shirt designers and/or marketers, can we please have the following T-Shirts made and given away at the next Grizzlies game:

"We shopped Gasol to every NBA team for an entire year and all we got was this crummy T-Shirt"