Bill Simmons Believes There's a Correlation Between the Attitude of the Memphis Fan Base and the Martin Luther King Assassination

Huh?

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If you heard the most recent installment of the Grantland podcast with Bill Simmons and Jalen Rose, you may have caught the moment when both guys discussed the Memphis fan base which resulted in Simmons sharing a...um...pretty interesting observation. We'll just let you read it yourself.

I didn’t realize the effect [The MLK assassination] had on that city…I think from people we talk to and stuff we’ve read, the shooting kind of sets the tone with how the city thinks about stuff … We were at Game 3. Great crowd, they fall behind and the whole crowd got tense. They were like, ‘Oh no, something bad is going to happen.’ And I think it starts from that shooting.

Could this possibly be true? If there are any hometown Memphis fans reading this, please chime in because while we would love to dismiss Simmons' claim, he did say that he developed this thinking after talking with people from the city, as well as things he's read.     

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[via The Big Lead]

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