On the Cusp Rudy Gay, Memphis Grizzlies
On the Cusp Rudy Gay, Memphis Grizzlies
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At the time, Rudy Gay wasn't trying to make a statement. He just wanted to drive around Houston's Luis Scola and get to the basket. Gay wound up delivering one of the most vicious dunks of the season, slamming the ball over Scola and Dikembe Mutombo and knocking Scola to the floor. "Nobody called me about it, but we'll play other teams and they'll be like, 'Did you have to do that boy like that?' " Gay said.
If that dunk didn't put the league on notice about Gay, the Grizzlies' decision to gift-wrap Pau Gasol to the Lakers certainly did. Gay had emerged as the team's leading scorer even with Gasol, but now there is no doubt that Memphis is Gay's team.
"I guess the organization wanted a change," said Gay, a product of Archbishop Spalding High School in Severn. "From there, what do you do? Who's going to fill his role, who's going to step up in their role and give us more? I take a lot of the responsibility."
Gay averaged 21 points in the first eight games after Gasol was traded, and he has the highest scoring increase of any player this season (9.2 points). He also is on pace to become the third player in franchise history to average at least 20 points per game (Gasol and Shareef Abdur-Rahim are the others). "It's part of me growing up, having to do different things and having to grow up even faster," Gay said.
