Breaking down Jaren Jackson Jr.’s reported extension with the Grizzlies | Jessica Benson Show

Breaking down Jaren Jackson Jr.’s reported extension with the Grizzlies | Jessica Benson Show

De, how about them Memphis Grizzlies yesterday, dog?
Hey, man.
How’ they do, man?
Great American philosopher Adolf Dolph, young Dolph once said, CJard business, rule number one, get the money first. Rule number two, don’t forget to get the money. He said that one time.
He said it.
He said that.
He did say it. And Jiren Jackson Jr. went and got the money yesterday.
Jiren Jackson Jr. reportedly allegedly pers uh signed a an extension 240 mil over five years. Um that’s huge. That’s big for for the Grizzlies and for Jiren. For for me, I thought that this would take a bit longer. I I certainly didn’t expect this to happen day one of like free agency. And again, you cannot none of this stuff can become become official at the earliest until July 6. So, we are still what 5 days away from these things being made official. I thought that Jiren would bet on himself and say, “Yo, I can get the supermax next year.” But lo and behold, Jiren was like, “No, I I’ll go ahead and sign that.” Getting the u the guarantee today was better than betting on himself in the future. So, and it’s still it’s still at five like it’s still almost 50 mil a year. What is that? Right around 48 mil per year. So, he’s still getting 48 mil. It’s not like he he’s dirt poor or anything like that, but he could have got so much more. He could have got so much more if he had gambled on himself and then defensive player of the year, all NBA selection, those types of things, accolades come through. He could have got the the max. But the Grizzlies were able to get that deal done with Jiren. Jiren only Brook Lopez has more seasons, six with 100 plus blocks and 100 plus three-pointers made than Jiren. Jiren has four of those and it is four consecutive seasons of 100 plus blocks and 100 three-pointers made. Jiren was the only player this season, I do believe, to uh record 1500 points and 100 blocks. He’s also one of two players to guard guards, forwards, and centers for at least 900 halfcourt matchups. The other player was was I do believe Evan Evan Mobley. The most floaters made in the NBA last year was Jiren Jackson Jr. Jiren has such a unique skill set, a true unicorn both offensively and defensively. You if you have this as a cornerstone piece for your team, you’re doing big things. You’re doing good things. And the Grizzlies lock that up for the next five, six years.
Yeah. And the big thing for Jiren, he’s gotten better every single year, right? I think that’s that’s the best part about his game. It’s it’s a development of what Jiren’s been like what has been from year one to year eight. Um I think when he first got here, it was you’re a rim you’re a rim protector lanky 18-year-old kid. we’re going to figure out what you want to do on the from the from the offensive end. And every single year the dude’s added to his bag, whether it’s whether it’s adding the floater, whether it’s added muscle, like there’s so many things he’s added every single year to his game. So to see this moment and get it to to get this this contract for him,
I thought it was pretty dope cuz it did.
Were you expecting it though?
I was. Okay.
I I I said on our show and uh and we talked about it a couple times and I was like the the peace of mind, bro, of knowing that you have a deal going into the season, right? I think that was very important. Uh regardless of whether whether or not you thought you can get the supermax or not, I think the the the best Jiren is when he has a piece of mind and I think the peace of mind having a deal done going into the season, not have to worry about it. It’s ink the pink the ink’s going to be dry by the time the season starts. So I I I’m not I’m not surprised at all that he got it done day one.
I again I I’ve you’ve seen it work both ways. I’ve seen players gamble on themselves and miss and gamble on themselves and hit. Uh, I was just expecting Jiren to based off nothing really, just just based off what I would do and how good I think Jiren is. I was I was banking on him to to gamble on himself a bit and then boom, get that supermax. But I think this shows um that Jiren wants to be here. Oh, like that the the the Jiren move and we’ll talk about the Santi move in a little bit. Those are players who could go other places, right? The Lakers are going to have max space next year. So Jiren could have bet on himself, said, “I’mma get the Max. Either I’mma get the Max here in Memphis or I’ll go to LA and get the get the super max, right?” Like I can I can do one of those things, pair up with Luca Donic and play in the Purple and Gold, one of the most uh storyried franchises in American professional sports. But he didn’t do that. He said, “Let’s go ahead and knock this out now.” So, while it is tough for the Grizzlies as a small market to get free agents to come through, bigname free agents to want to come to Memphis to play once again. Once again, this franchise has a star player who’s looking around like, “No, I like it here. I want to be here.” We saw it all of those years with the core four and now we’re seeing it with Jiren Jackson Jr. This this is big. This is huge for the for the team. And again, now now we we know they’ve got John Jiren locked up and now the the build around them begins.
And now you can you can stop all the bull crap photoshops now, right? All all this summer we saw photoshops of J and Lakers jerseys, J and this jersey, J and this jersey, Jiren and the Knicks jersey. Like Knicks fans were clamoring doing the whole, oh my god, what if we pair Jiren Jackson with Karen Towns this and that. Pacers fans were saying one of our biggest trade targets allegedly is we love to go get Jiren. All that is Kabos, right? You get to kill all those talks. I don’t Yeah, you’re making that face. I don’t
Why the Why the hell Pacers fans are I don’t know.
Not Pacers. Why the hell would you pay Cat and Jiren so they can both have seven fouls in the first quarter?
Exactly. Like I don’t fans are tweaking. They were tweaking. I don’t understand. They were tweaking. They’re the same thing.
I I don’t know. It was like But it was like every fan base was like, “So, can we get Jiren Jackson Jr.?” And I think yesterday like kind of like nipping all that in the bud. You know what I’m saying? I want to by the way whoever said that first was cooking by the way. Nipping it in the bud. That’s a great phrase. All time great phrase. But I think like you said you mentioned the the Jiren loving being here. I think he tweeted he tweeted yesterday twice and the first one was the end will teach you who you are with love. It’s always grind. We’re out here at all costs. Still feel like I remember moving here yesterday. Year seven. I am incredible incredibly thankful for everyone who has impacted my time here to much more ahead. always been the M. The dude loves this city, bro. And I think that’s like it’s hard to find guys who really really kind of resonate with the city they’re in, right? I think in the in this new NBA, guys are floating around. Guys are not really connected to the fan base. You’re having to buy new jerseys and new even though you’re going to have to buy New Jersey now cuz rest in peace to this number. Um my dog changes to number eight. But um I think it’s hard to find guys that you really connect as a fan base. And I think you have a you have John Jiren who fans now have six, seven different variations of their jerseys, their t-shirts, their bobbleheads. And I think that that means a lot to to him cuz as a as a kid he bounced around so much, right? He never had really had a home. So I think to have Memphis as his home was big, bro. The dude loves this city so much.
Yeah, man. And so when when people uh you know who will say, “All right, Memphis can’t attract anybody because of whatever ridiculous reason, right?” I think the the reason was crime. Um you can point to and say, “Well, this star player is here and he’s been here and he wants to be here. He’s had opportunities to go and he hasn’t taken them because he enjoys it here.” So that’s not the the case. Jiren uh likes it here. J likes it here. Uh Tony Allen liked it so much here. He he lives here now, right? Like people like being in Memphis once they they get here as Dev Devin moves the the jersey.
Turn the jersey around.
Wait, he’s so he’s changing numbers.
He’s changing numbers. Yeah. So, uh
Black Panther was good with the 13 in it.
Yeah, it’s it was good with it was good with 13 in it, but uh somebody when it the story came out yesterday, I thought it was funny cuz uh Yeah, there’s a reason why he’s going to do it. He’s going to I’m going to let him tell the story. I’m let him tell the story why he changed to number eight. But uh it’s going to be it’s going to be different because there’s a lot of people that have 13 jerseys in the city and now number these these 13 jerseys are going to be vintage be vintage jerseys now. You know what I’m saying? Uh but no
double vintage jersey you got on cuz it’s the the sounds and it’s the the 13.
It is a double vintage. But no, it’s that number eight is going to look good, man. Uh he wore number eight at the in the McDonald’s All-American game. Okay. In in high school. Uh but there’s a bigger there’s a there’s a bigger reason cuz you know Jiren’s Mr. Big Brain. So he has a bigger reason too. Has he announced what the reason is or just announced?
No, no, he has announced reason. The number change has been announced, but the reason for it has not been announced. He he’ll he’ll explain it one day. Okay.
Very soon, hopefully. All right. The Jessica Benson Show with CJ Hurt.

Per ESPN’s Shams Charania, Jaren Jackson Jr. is set to sign an extension with the Memphis Grizzlies that will keep him on the squad for the foreseeable future. Devin and CJ explain why this deal is great for the Grizzlies, what it means for the city of Memphis, and how excited they are to have Trip locked down for the long haul.

Plus, they discuss Jackson Jr. changing his jersey number from 13 to 8 👀

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