Surely the successor to the highest office in the land wouldn’t take a day celebrating the life of a civil rights icon and make it all about himself, would he?
Would he?
Today on grizzlies.com, there will be a live stream of a discussion on the intersection of race and sports by National Civil Rights Museum Sports Legacy Award honorees Grant Hill, Steve Smith and Lisa Leslie starting at 5 PM. The panel will be hosted by ESPN’s Mark Jones. The discussion will follow a invitation-only 4 PM tour of the museum led by the honorees. The honorees will be joined for the discussion by Memphis Grizzlies coach David Fizdale, Marc Spears from ESPN’s The Undefeated and other special guests.
This sign was found on the door of Oshi Burger this week:
Oshi is rebranding as a new restaurant, although I understand some of the concepts of Oshi may be retained. Sad news for people who loved meeting on the patio for group lunches in the warm months. They won’t be able to do it when it warms back up in 2017, at least not under the Oshi banner.
The Memphis Tigers host South Florida this afternoon at 5 at FedExForum.
There’s a “Memphis vs. Everybody” dance competition featuring 15 elite dancers at Hard Rock Cafe tonight from 7 to 11. The event was founded by a “So You Think You Can Dance” season 12 contestant and founder of “Memphis Jookin,” Montrell Britton. Dancers will have a chance to visit different parts of the city and taste the food to get that Memphis authentic feel. Donations will be collected for the Hard Rock Heals Foundation.
Job news: Latino Memphis is looking for a full-time Events Planning and Production Manager.
Childsplay Theatre brings its smash hit musical Rock the Presidents to the Orpheum’s Family Series Friday, February 3 at 6:30 PM. It’s a high-octane, multimedia musical review looking at the 44 people who have held the nation’s highest office. There will be songs like “Sons of Washington” celebrating our greatest presidents, as well as numbers like “Who in the World is Millard Fillmore?” to salute the lesser-known ones.
The MBJ reports that the original Raiford’s location at Vance and Mulberry is being remodeled to prepare for a showstopper upscale restaurant and bar concept. The owners have been approached with several ideas, and are determined to choose the concept that is the right fit for the space and the neighborhood.
FedExForum has a look at the matches planned for Tuesday night’s WWE Smackdown show broadcast live from FedExForum. The main event is scheduled to be Intercontinental Champion Dean Ambrose and the returning John Cena facing off in a tag team match against The Miz and WWE World Champion AJ Styles. In addition there will be a cage match for the Smackdown women’s championship as Alexa Bliss defends against former champ Becky Lynch. Will the cage keep the mysterious La Luchadora from interfering once again? Also filmed that evening will be 205 Live, the weekly WWE Network-exclusive show featuring WWE’s cruiserweights. Note that the card is subject to change.
The Grizz beat The Beard on The Beard’s home court in Houston last night. Can you believe there are analysts who, pre-season, predicted the Grizzlies would win 38 games and end up in the draft lottery? The fact that Tony Allen is getting minutes at point guard shows what a fantastic player development coach Fizdale is.
All right. Time to go out and do things. Back tomorrow.