Grizzlies to retire Tony Allen’s number nine

Tony Allen (YouTube)

According to Judy Black of ABC Sports on Tuesday, the Memphis Grizzlies are set to retire the number nine jersey of former Grizzlies shooting guard Tony Allen of Chicago, Illinois. Allen played seven seasons with the Grizzlies from 2010 to 2017.

In 462 games, Allen averaged 8.9 points, 4.3 rebounds, 1.7 steals, and 1.4 assists, to go along with a field goal percentage of .474, three point percentage of .269 and a free throw percentage of .695. Allen also played with the Boston Celtics and the New Orleans Pelicans.

A defensive specialist, Allen had 796 steals with Memphis, including a career high eight steals in a 109-101 Grizzlies win over the Cleveland Cavaliers on April 23, 2012. The eight steals in a game is a Grizzlies franchise record. The NBA record for most steals in a game belongs to San Antonio Spurs power forward Larry Kenon of Birmingham, Alabama, and New Jersey Nets small forward Kendall Gill of Chicago, Illinois. Kenon had 11 steals in a 110-105 Spurs win over the Kansas City Kings on December 26, 1976, and Gill had 11 steals in an 88-77 Nets win over the Miami Heat on April 3, 1999.

Allen was also on the NBA’s All-Defensive Team in 2011-12, 2012-13, and 2014-15. In an interesting note, in the first two years Allen was honoured with the NBA All-Defensive Team, the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, LeBron James was also honoured. James is known as a great offensive player, but has been great defensively too.

This will be the third time that the Grizzlies are retiring a player’s number. They have also retired the number 33 of Marc Gasol, and the number 50 of Zach Randolph.