Calkins: Jaren Jackson had to be traded. Because it’s time for the Grizzlies to start again.
Memphis Grizzlies forward Jaren Jackson Jr. was traded to the Utah Jazz on Tuesday, Feb. 3. (Wes Hale/Special to The Daily Memphian file)
Geoff Calkins
Geoff Calkins has been chronicling Memphis and Memphis sports for more than two decades. Calkins has been named the best sports columnist in the country five times by the Associated Press sports editors, but still figures his best columns are about the people who make Memphis what it is.
He sat in the driver’s seat and turned the ignition.
He pulled out, looked both ways, was careful to signal before making a turn.
“I had a little nerves, because someone was grading my driving,” he said.
This was Jaren Jackson Jr.
Before his second season with the Memphis Grizzlies.
He took his driver’s test that summer. He had never had a license before.
But now Jackson, Ja Morant and Dillon Brooks were going to steer the Grizzlies into a brilliant new future.
“New coach, new everything, new jerseys, new people,” Jackson said in 2019.
And now, five and a half years later, everything will be new again.
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