Nothing good ever happens to Memphis. Not only was that what I was taught while I grew up in Memphis, but that’s also what I experienced. That was until the 2008 Memphis Tigers basketball season kicked off in November.

You see, most people don’t understand what it’s like growing up in Memphis. When outsiders see the “Home of the Blues,” they think of barbecue, B.B. King and Graceland. Memphians see a city that is racially divided, a corrupt government and a homicide rate that would make most cities blush. Simply put, they see a city where nothing good ever happens.

However, most of those thoughts were put to the side this past basketball season because, for the first time in a long time, Memphis had something that united its citizens in a way that even the late, great Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. could not do.

They had the Memphis Tigers.

For once it didn’t matter what part of Memphis you came from or what color your skin was. Memphis had something to be happy about. Finally, it was going to be our time to shine. Or at least that was how it was supposed to be.

And for 39 minutes on Monday night, Memphians across the country still had something we could all cheer for. We were going to pull off the impossible. We were going to prove all the pundits wrong and win the national championship. Finally, something good was going to happen to little ole’ Memphis.

Then it happened.

Memphis rims out four of five free throws and Kansas drains a three that will go down as one of the greatest in its history. And again, the pundits were proven right and Memphis gets the short end of the stick. Some may call it bad coaching, others may say we were overrated, but I promise you that most Memphians will call it the norm. Whatever it was, it won’t take away what this team did for the city of Memphis.

Regardless of who decides to leave or who decides to stay, Memphians will always hold this team in high regard. They didn’t just win a lot of basketball games and they didn’t just make it to the national championship game. They showed Memphians that when they come together they can do great things.

They took a city that has no unity and brought it together for an exciting five-month journey. So as a Memphian transplanted into St. Joseph, I’m OK with this loss. Yeah, it hurts, but being able to watch the city of Memphis come together like it has makes it all worthwhile.

Ricky Gipson, the Internet content editor, comes from a long line of die-hard Memphis Tigers fans. He arrived at the News-Press from Memphis in January of 2007 and played a key part in the redesign of stjoenews.net. He received his bachelor’s degree in Internet journalism from the University of Memphis in 2006 before he and his wife moved to St. Joseph.