Ron Mercer, who missed the last three games with a sprained ankle, raised the possibility of season-ending surgery if his ankle pain doesn’t ease.
“I have to go out and see what happens in the next couple of games,” said Mercer, who started after testing his ankle in warmups before Saturday night’s victory over Vancouver. “If it continues to bother me, I’ll do what’s best and take myself out [for the season]. I won’t have any choice if it’s going to continue to bother me.
“But I’ll give it a shot and see what happens first. It’s still sore.
“It’s the same thing I had last year. There’s a slim chance it will get worse if I keep playing. After the season I might have to get a ‘scope or something if it keeps bothering me. The main thing is to try to not miss the summer working out.”
Aching: Also playing hurt was Marcus Fizer. The rookie forward has a bruised thigh and was limited in practice Friday. It didn’t stop Fizer from adding to his tattoo collection, although, as he was sporting new vertical tattoos on the back of his legs with the word “Truly” on one leg and “Blessed” on the other.
Picking a location: Grizzlies owner Michael Heisley of St. Charles, who had more than 100 friends and family at Saturday night’s game with team President Dick Versace, has been scouting locations for the team.
Heisley said he’s looked at Las Vegas, Anaheim, Louisville, New Orleans, St. Louis and Memphis.
“The big asset going for Kentucky is that it, probably along with Indiana, has the greatest concentration of basketball fans in the world,” Heisley said.
Heisley also seemed to eliminate St. Louis, saying the arena owner who previously tried to buy the Grizzlies and move them wants control of the team to use the arena.
Heisley said he has been told–although he is seeking an extension–that he needs to identify a city by Thursday.
“Do I expect to make a choice? I don’t know,” Heisley said. “If I don’t have a place, I’ll be in Vancouver. Would it be difficult? Yes. If we don’t find a place we will play in Vancouver.”
No trade: Heisley said the Grizzlies had trade discussions but decided against trading away forward Shareef Abdur-Rahim.
“We were right in the midst of all those trades,” he said. “And if I was willing to give up Shareef and take a bunch of nothing players like Michael Jordan [in Washington] and get below the cap and save me some money I could have done that. [Dallas owner] Mark Cuban wanted Shareef a lot more than he wanted Juwan Howard.
“I put a stop to that because I didn’t think it would help the situation to suddenly trade off the star basketball player.”
Ouch, that one hurt: Reflecting on his Clippers’ victory over the Bulls on Thursday night, 19-year-old Darius Miles said: “We understand the game more than them. The Bulls need to talk to each other more.”
