<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">LAS VEGAS -- There are plenty of moments from last season that Rudy Gay already has forgotten. Forgive the wide-eyed forward if his amnesia encompasses the first 45 days of his NBA career. Add fluctuating playing time to a coaching change to mounting losses and internal strife, and Gay's baptism into professional sports transpired with boiling water. There is, however, an unpleasant incident that Gay remembers like it was yesterday. He's holding onto a mid-December memory that happened in the Grizzlies' locker room as a driving force. Then-team president Jerry West, in a wide-ranging tirade concerning the team's play, lashed out at Gay. He threatened to send the No. 8 overall draft pick, the guy Memphis traded for Shane Battier, to the NBA's developmental league. "It was a heated discussion in the locker room," Gay recalled. "He said if I didn't step it up I'll be in the D-League. It was kind of a wake-up call even though I wasn't going to let myself go to the D-League. I knew he could send me if he really wanted to. But I took it as motivation. Just me being the person that I am, I used it to get better." In reality, though, Gay's confidence already had been shaken. As he prepares for this second NBA season, Gay hardly sounds conflicted about how he can help the Griz. "I'm trying to take my game one level higher," Gay said last weekend at the conclusion of the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas. "I definitely think I can get to a point where I'm taking over games. I'd like to be that type of player that if the team needs me to take over, I can." In five years, Gay said, he can be a 20-points and 10-rebounds player. The coaching staff will settle for consistency for now. </div> Source: Memphis Commercial Appeal
