“Having another guy that went through the same thing I did at the same time - the whole ‘Grit and Grind,’ the way we had to kind of fight and claw for everything to even get noticed as a team and a city - that mentality kind of lives with you and sticks with you,” Conley told the Commercial-Appeal. Now, Conley and Gay, both in their mid-30s, just flew to Las Vegas together to finalize their new contracts with the Utah Jazz, watch some summer league basketball, and get to know their new teammates. For five and a half more seasons, they toiled together to bring the Grizzlies to Western Conference contention.įast-forward to August of 2021. In November of 2007, when they first played an NBA game against the Seattle SuperSonics, Instagram had yet to be founded, no one had yet thought to tweet about Rudy Gay, and the Grizzlies were coming off of a season - Gay’s rookie year - in which they owned the NBA’s worst record.īut the pair worked together, they grew up together, they improved together.

Rudy Gay and Mike Conley first played together 14 years ago, both as young pieces of an upstart Memphis Grizzlies team.