Know a good witch doctor? 3 Shades of Blue is investigating every way imaginable to lift an apparent curse on the Grizzlies. It started a year and a half ago, at an innocent-seeming charity auction:

Among the items up for bid were the Honorary Ball Boy on opening night, a trip with the Grizzlies to an away game (including flying on the team plane, hotel stay in the team hotel and tickets to the game), a chance to have Grizz visit your child's class and one odd item.

The team was going to auction off Pau Gasol's cast from his broken foot.

Who would want to buy a cast from a 7 ft man that had been wearing it during September and October in Spain? It wasn't decorated with Grizzlies stickers, it wasn't colored in Beale St. Blue and while autographed by the big man himself it wasn't exactly something you would hang on the wall in your den. The team was coming off three successive playoff appearances and had won 49 games the year before and had made a big time trade to acquire Rudy Gay and Stromile Swift for Shane Battier but who would want to put a stinky cast from someone Else's foot on display?

What was even more incredible was that the cast sold for more than the Honorary Ball Boy! $200 more in fact!!! I can't imagine the thought process there. A lifetime memory for your son or a piece of plaster that wasn't art and really can't even be put on display.

And so it began.

Since that moment the Grizzlies have been a failure.