Tony Allen discusses his endorsement contract with Memphis Airport

It was a good feeling, man. I’d never been an actual spokesperson before. So when the airport reached out to the Grizzlies and asked for me — I’m talking, they asked for me, specifically? Like, picture the head of the airport, you know, and he’s telling his assistant, “Yo, assistant — we need to do this thing right. We need this thing to be Memphis. Get me Tony Allen for this one.”

And it wasn’t just an ad, and that’s it, you know what I’m saying? It was more like — man, it’s a real honor to be the face of a city like that. It was these giant posters of me, just hanging all over the place. You had Tony Allen — smiling at you, vibing with you, pointing at you, like, “Hey, man, you picked a good airport.” 

As soon as any opposing team stepped off the plane, they had probably saw me standing there, looking ’em up and down. Welcome to this town called Mem. Tony Allen controls the skies around these parts. So just like that, man, with those ads, I’m in their head. I’m getting over on ’em from the jump — playing that world-class defense before the game had even started.


Excerpted from 'Memphis' in The Player's Tribune (link)