MEMPHIS, Tenn. — As Memphis battled Golden State in Friday night's play-in game, Mike Conley and his wife, Mary, were out at dinner.
Appetizers and wine selections were hardly the focus.
"I told her I got to work."
Watching the game with his phone on the table, the legendary former Memphis point guard studied the next generation of Grizzlies basketball. As the Grizz defeated the Warriors 117-112 in overtime, earning them the right to play his Utah Jazz in the first round, Conley was all business.
"I wasn't necessarily rooting for either team," he told reporters in a Zoom news conference Saturday. "Obviously it's business for me, so I'm going to be locked in and ready to go, so I'm excited for the challenge."
The series will be new territory for the former Core Four member. Conley led the eight-seed Grizzlies to an upset of the top-seeded San Antonio Spurs in 2011, the franchise's first playoff series win. Ten years later, his focus will be preventing history from repeating itself.
"I haven't been on the other end of playoff ball in Memphis," he said. "I know how great the fans are there when they're rooting for you. But I don't know what it's like when they're against you. I'm looking forward to that."
Conley may be the first playoff opponent to look forward to playing in The Grindhouse. Even at 40% capacity, he knows how difficult of an environment Grizzlies fans can create.
"They were always standing up, waving the Growl Towels, being obnoxious to other team and being loud and finding ways to raise the tempo and temperature a little bit," he recalled. "That's what Grizzlies fans have always been, especially in the playoffs. It goes up a few more notches. I remember that all too well."
Games 1 and 2 of the series will take place in Salt Lake City. Conley will get his taste of playoff basketball in Memphis as the opposition in Game 3 on Saturday, May 29.
"It's a new chapter for me," he said. "It will be fun for me to compete in the city that's been home for me for so long and against a team that has been playing so well."