"Rudy Gay is a 23-year-old small forward who has never made an all-star team, never carried the Grizzlies to a .500 record and never fully tapped into his enormous athletic potential. Is he worth a five-year, $82 million contract?

He had better be.

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Rudy Gay's five-year, $82 million deal seems odd, when the Grizzlies offered him only $50 million last summer. Is he worth another $32 million?

He had better stop disappearing during long stretches of games. He had better play with intensity and focus on defense. He had better emerge as the true alpha dog whom coaches and fans have been wishing for ever since his college days.

Otherwise, the Grizzlies will have made a potentially debilitating error in judgment Thursday.

As I told you in Thursday's column, Mike Heisley wasn't about to let another owner come in and take Gay from the Grizzlies. He made certain of it Thursday by presenting Gay with an offer he would have been insane not to accept."