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The Memphis Grizzlies will officially begin their ninth season in the Bluff City by holding training camp in Birmingham, Ala., Grizzlies General Manager and Vice President of Basketball Operations Chris Wallace announced today. The weeklong camp will take place at the Bill Battle Coliseum on the campus of Birmingham-Southern College from Sept. 29-Oct. 5.

“We are very grateful to Birmingham-Southern College for welcoming our team to the city of Birmingham,” Grizzlies Head Coach Lionel Hollins said. “Many NBA teams hold training camp away from their home cities, and Birmingham will give our team a chance to bond and focus on the upcoming season.”

Hollins’ first training camp as head coach marks just the third time since moving from Vancouver in 2001 that the team has hosted training camp outside of Memphis. The Grizzlies also held training camp in Malaga, Spain (2007) and Barcelona, Spain (2003) as part of the NBA Europe Live Tour. The arrival in Birmingham also marks the hometown return of 2009 first round draft pick DeMarre Carroll (27th overall), who won two state championships (2003, 2004) at John Carroll Catholic High School.

Is the training camps open to the public?

UGA Hayes wrote:Is the training camps open to the public?

Haven't heard for sure, however, I know the players are only open to the press for the last 30 minutes, so I'm guessing that the sessions will be limited access - at best.

I guess it seems weird to me to hold it in a different city if you aren't doing some kind of publicity campaign.

UGA Hayes wrote:I guess it seems weird to me to hold it in a different city if you aren't doing some kind of publicity campaign.

The word from the front office is that it's an effort, much like an NFL camp, to get the guys together to bond, learn one another's game as well as this being coach Hollins first camp with this team. The effect isn't for publicity, rather, to remove distractions.

Oh, I see. Thats too bad--I have a feeling, good or bad, Memphis will be interesting this year.Thanks for the response.

great decision imo...the suites realize than this team has plenty of talent to compete and be a factor this year.they also realize that talent is only going to take them so far and that bonding on and off the court is what's going to build that chemistry and trust that they lack as of today.there won't be much else to do other than practice and hang out with each other.oh and hope that they stay away from those college skirts!!!

I remember back when the Grizzlies were here in Vancouver. Since a buddy of mine was a good friend of one of the Grizzlies I got to hang out after the games and go down to the lockeroom area. There were very few players that left together. The player that we knew said they would rather go home to find some peace and quiet over being interviewed, or hanging out with each other and being approached by fans wherever they went. Others like Mike Bibby had a big possee of friends that he would immediately leave with. They all quickly scurried away out the side door where the valets would bring their vehicles around to. I suppose if they had actually won more games than they did here they might be a more upbeat mood.

So I can see how holding camp away from Memphis forces the players to hang out a bit more and get to know each other.