What began as an investigation of a “drug-related assault” that only on the fringes involved Zach Randolph has turned into something a bit uglier for the Memphis Grizzlies forward. According to KGW.com (via CBS Sports) a man who admitted to supplying marijuana for a party at Randolph’s house says Zach stole his weed because the $200 price tag was too high
James Beasley, 26, told KGW that he went to Randolph’s home to sell marijuana and when there was a disagreement over price, so several men beat him up and hit him with a pool stick.
“He (Randolph) snatched it like basically saying, ‘I’m taking your weed,” Beasley said.
Zach’s made about $90 million over his time in the NBA and he’s about to get $66 million more from Memphis. But if this guy James Beasley’s story is to be believed, then Randolph let him get dragged off to be beaten with pool cues because he didn’t want to spend $200 on a bag of weed.
What’s $200 to Randolph? Well, he made $17,666,666 last season. He played 20,955 minutes. So he made about $843 per minute of play. So basically, Zach earned $200 after 14 seconds of basketball.
First of all, this is the word of a drug dealer we’re taking, so who knows how accurate this is. The beating happened, though. That much we know. And its not like the story isn’t believable. And if it’s true, then Zach Randolph’s relatively clean recent history doesn’t mean anything anymore. The money is nothing to Randolph, but his principals don’t seem to have changed.
And I’m not even talking about smoking weed. I’m not going to be an idiot and pretend it doesn’t happen everywhere in the NBA. The number of guys who toke up in the offseason is probably pretty high (no pun intended). But this whole notion of beating someone up because they’re charging more than you’d like is ridiculous. It’s like me having my boys rough someone up because he tried to charge me five cents for penny candy. It’s stupid.
The lockout is Randolph’s saving grace. There are no drug rules under which he can get suspended right now. But his reputation isn’t immune from this. He’s still the same ol’ guy.
