Representin'

 We forget, sometimes. In an era when men and women chase the next big payday to play games for our amusement, we forget, or we don't believe, or we raise a cynical eyebrow because it's a cynical age, and that's just how we roll.

But last night we were reminded: Even mercenaries become attached to the cities and communities and people they are paid so handsomely to represent.

Hard to doubt or be cynical about that as Memphis Grizzlies coach Taylor Jenkins talked and talked last night, in the wake of a citizen of Memphis being beaten to death by five goons in police uniforms. A young black father named Tyre Nichols, 29, wound up crumpled on the pavement after a simple traffic stop. It was 20 minutes before he received any medical treatment.

He died three days later. In his last extremities, as the five goons rained fists, boots and batons on him, he cried out piteously "Mama."

That's exactly what soldiers often cry out when the life is draining out of them on the battlefield. But this was an American street in an American city, and Tyre Nichols was just an American citizen driving home after taking pictures of the sky.

And not long after the bodycam footage was released Friday, there was Taylor Jenkins, talking and talking and talking up in Minneapolis, both before and after the Grizzlies lost to the Timberwolves.

He said the interview with Nichols' mother moved him to tears. He said it was tough being on the road, and he wished he could "extend my arms through this camera right now to the family." He said the Grizzlies were "playing for our city that's going through a lot right now."

If you're one of those compelled by the cynicism of our times to roll your eyes at that, may I be the first to damn you thoroughly.

Because, yes, our mercenary athletes do form bonds with the communities in which they play, no matter how long they do so. The best of them reach out to those communities; they show up in soup kitchens and donate to local charities and visit sick kids in children's hospitals. Peyton Manning even has his name on one of the latter in Indianapolis, where he spent the prime of his career.

So, yes, they form attachments, the best of them. Some of them even become synonymous with the cities in which they play, like Drew Brees and New Orleans or Peyton and Indy. And those attachments never really go away, even if they wind up somewhere else.

Remember Freddie Freeman of the Dodgers, who spent most of his first roadie to Atlanta in tears because he'd played there for so long and his heart was still there? You might question why he left, if so, but life is far messier and complicated than some people tell you it is. If it weren't, regret would not exist.

And so, Taylor Jenkins talked on and on last night. The Grizzlies and the Women's National Basketball Players Association released statements. Phoenix Suns guard Chris Paul said something, and Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, and Grizzlies guard Jaren Jackson Jr. tweeted "We are with you" to the Nichols family, and "To Memphis, we are hurting, too." 

And if you are compelled to roll your eyes at any of that, or to regard it as meaningless, or to assign to it some political agenda devoid of honest empathy or emotion ...

Well. You know what you can with that today. 

It's what Jaren Jackson and Ja Morant and a bunch of other Grizzlies do on a regular basis on the basketball floor.

Stuff it.