The meeting was quintessential Memphis — downtown at Charlie Vergos Rendezvous, over ribs, cole slaw, macaroni, beans and really more food than Ja Morant can remember.

But it was here, the weekend before last, sitting at a table eating barbecue, that the Memphis Grizzlies formally introduced themselves to the player who could become the new face of the franchise during Thursday night’s NBA draft.

Morant said owner Robert Pera was there. So was team president Jason Wexler, 31-year-old executive vice president of basketball operations Zach Kleiman and most of the other prominent members of the organization’s revamped front office.

“Everybody but the coaches,” Morant said in a telephone interview with The Commercial Appeal Tuesday afternoon.

“It was mainly just me learning them and them getting to know me,” he added. “We were getting to know each other.”

The Grizzlies were, presumably, looking to confirm what we’ve all suspected they would conclude since the moment they lucked into the No. 2 overall pick in the 2019 NBA draft lottery last month.

That Morant is the right choice.

That he’s the right fit alongside Jaren Jackson Jr., now and for years to come.

That he’s got the right temperament to join a rebuilding effort that might take years.

That he can eventually become the right kind of community pillar, just like the Core Four did a decade ago.

Because Thursday is about more than one pick, or one draft. It’s about Memphis’ only major pro sports team officially turning the page and entering a new era of basketball. It’s about the distinct possibility — and really at this point, the assumption — that Morant will be the Grizzlies’ new starting point guard because Mike Conley is gone now.

What Ja Morant thinks about Mike Conley, Jaren Jackson Jr.

Not that Morant cared either way.

He would have been fine being mentored by Conley next season, or taking full-time control of the point guard reins immediately.

“Conley is a great player,” he said before Conley was reportedly traded to Utah. “If he’s there or not, either way I (would) be playing for Memphis. Just try to find out my role with the team and just try to do whatever the coach needs me to do.”

It’s this humility and earnestness, just as much as his dynamic skill set, that makes Morant such an intriguing figure to Grizzlies fans. He’s not the typical top-five pick, and he’s got a story that seems like it could have been written in Memphis.

It’s a story that “made me the person that I am today,” Morant said. “I had to work to get to where I’m at real hard.”

He grew up in tiny Dalzell, S.C., overlooked by most of the best college basketball programs in the country, and nonetheless morphed into an all-American and the best point guard prospect in the draft at Murray State. He is a late-bloomer who developed his prodigious athleticism after high school, who always felt he had the talent to reach this moment, but admitted “being under the radar, there were times I questioned myself.”

Morant is 6-foot-3, jumps like a kangaroo off two feet for highlight-reel dunks, and possesses vision and creativity with the ball that makes scouts and teammates drool. He spent the past couple months speeding up the release of his 3-point shot and, “it’s working,” he said. "I’m shooting the ball better.”

Morant has also already been in communication with Jackson, before even the draft lottery occurred, before their potential partnership came into focus.

Morant played alongside 6-foot-8 forward Terrell Miller as a freshman at Murray State, an inside-outside threat he compared to Jackson Tuesday.

“I loved it,” Morant said. “Obviously, it spaced the floor. It makes the defense have to respect him and everybody else.”

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How Ja Morant feels about Memphis

There are a couple concerns, like Morant’s slight 175-pound frame and a recent surgical procedure to remove loose bodies from his knee.

But Morant said Tuesday he’s pain-free, dunking again and, “I feel like I haven’t lost a step.”

He wants to play in the NBA’s Summer League next month, although he concedes that decision will ultimately be made by the team that drafts him.

Best of all is that he’ll be content wherever he ends up Thursday night.

“I’m just happy to be in the position I’m in,” Morant said. “I’ll be excited with whichever team drafts me. I had a good visit with Memphis and the city is great.”

“I don’t really care about a small market, a big market,” he added. “I think my main focus is just to get into the NBA and try to make a name for myself and help whichever team I’m drafted to win games.”

It’s exactly what Grizzlies fans should want to hear, and exactly why he’s probably going to be the No. 2 overall pick Thursday night in New York.

But Memphis’ front office wasn’t ready to reveal their thinking, or much at all, when the two sides met at the Rendezvous, according to Morant.

They didn’t tell him Taylor Jenkins was set to become the franchise’s next head coach. They didn’t tell him what their preferred style of play would be moving forward. They certainly didn't tell him he was going to be the selection at No. 2.

Instead, it was Morant who told them about “off the court Ja,” about his laid-back personality, his love for children and his desire to be a positive role model.

“I knew almost everything about them,” he said. “I knew what type of team they was. Obviously knew the roster because I watch a lot of basketball."

And so what did the Grizzlies digest that night, other than a wide array of Memphis barbecue?

We can only hope that, for the first time in a long time, they came away convinced their uncertain future didn’t seem so uncertain anymore.

“I can’t speak for Memphis,” Morant concluded, “but I guess we’ll see how they felt on Thursday.”

You can reach Commercial Appeal columnist Mark Giannotto via email at mgiannotto@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter: @mgiannotto

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