Interim coach Bickerstaff: Grizzlies need Gasol to be Gasol

Though the Memphis Grizzlies are going through some changes, the team is still relying on its superstar center.

Interim coach J.B. Bickerstaff replaced David Fizdale at the helm for Memphis on Monday. One of his first tasks: cooling off speculation that the team's looking to part with Marc Gasol after Fizdale benched him for the entire fourth quarter in Sunday's loss to the Brooklyn Nets.

"Marc is one of the leaders of this team. We need Marc to play his best best basketball. ... We need Marc Gasol to be Marc Gasol," Bickerstaff said at a press conference Tuesday alongside Grizzlies general manager Chris Wallace, according to the Commercial Appeal's Ronald Tillery.

A day after the benching, the Grizzlies appeared to side with their star and fired Fizdale. Reports later surfaced detailing an irreparably fractured relationship between the two, including multiple confrontations during practices.

Wallace confirmed the coach and player weren't on the best of terms, but said that wasn't the sole basis for the personnel decision.

"There was tension between the two. This is a factor but it's not the overriding factor," Wallace said. "We talked to Marc in real time about the same time we talked to Coach Fizdale."

Fizdale later addressed his firing in a statement where he thanked the team and said he supported the Grizzlies' championship hopes, though he did not comment on his relationship with Gasol.