White Chocolate disliked the flavor of his last Grizzlies coach

Jason Williams - the starting point guard for the Memphis Grizzlies from 2001 to 2005 - was candid earlier this year about incidents that happened during his time with the team.

In the final few months of his stint with the Grizzlies (from December 2004 to May of the following year), he played under head coach Mike Fratello, a tactician that White Chocolate did not like.

While the Czar was a decent coach, he was not Williams' cup of tea. According to the flashy-passing point guard, Fratello—the 1986 NBA Coach of the Year—did not know how to handle a locker room full of grown men in Memphis.

"Fratello wasn't a guy, man. He wasn't a guy who can control 12 grown men," Williams said on The OGs Show.

Williams didn't stop there. He added: "I think he'd be a great middle school coach."

Fratello's fraught relationships with players

Williams was not alone in having issues with Coach Fratello.

In the same episode of The OGs Show, White Chocolate recalled that his former teammate in Memphis, Bonzi Wells, also had a rocky dynamic with the Grizzlies coach, including one memorable incident involving a chair.

According to Williams, Fratello rarely used his bench seat - preferring instead to roam the sidelines - and during the Grizzlies' 2005 playoff series against the Phoenix Suns, Bonzi decided to sit in the coach's empty seat. Fratello was not pleased and let Bonzi know about it. In response, Wells clashed with his coach, refusing to play, and even threw a headband at The Czar.

Wells got suspended for a game for throwing the headband, which furthered his dislike for Fratello.

Grizzlies fire Fratello; new and calmer era begins

In 2006, Williams was traded to the Miami Heat, which was a fantastic move for him because he became an NBA champion at the end of that season. Meanwhile, Fratello and Memphis kept stumbling.

The Grizzlies' 6-24 start to the 2006/07 season was the final straw for the Czar. Memphis' front office fired Fratello and replaced him with Marc Iavaroni.

The franchise struggled for the rest of that campaign, but they gained a high draft pick because of their losing record. With the #4 overall pick of the 2007 draft, the Grizzlies selected a point guard from Ohio State who was known as an excellent game manager.

And with that, the franchise that started the 2006-07 season with the turbulent Mike Fartello in charge handed the keys to the calm, unifying presence of Mike Conley Jr.

Related: Memphis adding high-profile assistant coach to staff