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Pete's Perspective: 2014 Training Camp Day 1

Our own Pete Pranica checks in with highlights from the first session of Grizzlies Training Camp in San Diego.

As Mike Conley walked to the waiting team bus outside RIMAC Arena on the campus of UCSD, I stopped him and asked him what the theme of the Grizzlies’ training camp was.

“Urgency,” he answered without hesitation.

It’s not much of a marketing tag line, but it is the whole and unvarnished truth for this Grizzlies team. A year ago in Nashville, the Grizzlies were coming off a Western Conference Finals appearance and entered camp on the Vanderbilt campus with touch of swagger and a comfort level.

Too much of a comfort level, it turned out. The Grizzlies had fits and starts out of the gate, and when they lost Marc Gasol for 23 games, they found themselves having to play for a standings deficit for much of the season. Memphis had to win a game on the road against the surprisingly tough Phoenix Suns to earn a playoff berth and then take out Dallas to escape a first-round match with the Spurs.

One of the toughest things to learn in sports is that last year’s accomplishments are exactly that – last year’s. The 2013-14 Grizzlies learned that almost too late in the game. The 2014-15 Grizzlies aren’t going to make the same mistake twice.

There was no easing into the first session at RIMAC Arena. There was a lot of running, competing and even a drill for taking charges. The cavernous RIMAC Arena allowed four sets of drills to be done concurrently, so there was very little standing around by anyone, especially the assistant coaches who kept the pace of the practice humming along.

There’s very little to conclude or to judge after one session, but the effort and attention to detail were in evidence – and that’s all you can ask as training camp starts.

One question that’s been asked is, “why San Diego?” The quick and easy answer is that Grizzlies controlling owner Robert Pera went to UCSD. In talking with Pera after the morning camp session, he shrugged off that association, preferring that people remember that the1992 Olympic Dream Team held practice sessions at RIMAC Arena. His largely unspoken hope was that some of the magic of Magic, Michael, Larry and company would infuse the Grizzlies’ training camp efforts 22 years later.