The Memphis Grizzlies will raise Tony Allen’s No. 9 jersey to the rafters at FedExForum next March, the team announced Tuesday. Allen will be the third member of the Grizzlies’ “Core Four” to have his jersey retired; Zach Randolph’s No. 50 and Marc Gasol’s No. 33 were the franchise’s first two retired numbers.
The jersey retirement ceremony will take place after Memphis’ game against the Miami Heat on March 15. Allen himself told the Memphis Commercial Appeal’s Damichael Cole in May that the team had told him it would happen during the 2024-25 season.
Allen played in the NBA for 14 seasons, seven of them with the Grizzlies. He won a championship as a reserve with the Boston Celtics in 2008, but his best years were in Memphis. The team signed him away from Boston on a three-year contract in 2010; in Year 1, he took O.J. Mayo’s starting spot, birthed the Grit-‘n’-Grind era with a classic quote in a walk-off interview and earned All-Defense honors for the first time in his career.
During his tenure in Memphis, Allen was the toughest, most physical perimeter defender on what was usually the toughest, most physical defensive team in the NBA. He made the All-Defensive team six times, and was First Team for three of them. He is second in Grizzlies history (behind only Mike Conley) in steals, sixth in games played and, incredibly for a guard, ninth in offensive rebounds.
The Grizzlies were initially going to retire Allen’s jersey during the 2021-22 season, weeks after they retired Randolph’s. This was postponed, however, in light of Allen being charged in October 2021 for his role in a scheme to defraud the NBA’s health and welfare benefits plan. That November, the team released a video in which Allen says he asked to have his jersey retirement pushed back to the 2022-23 season. Allen pleaded guilty to conspiracy commit health care fraud and wire fraud in April 2023, but reportedly paid most of the money back. In August 2023, he was sentenced to community service and supervision, avoiding jail time.
