NBA: The Former Vancouver Grizzlies – A Big Misunderstanding

The Vancouver Grizzlies survived in the Association for only six years before they found a new home in Memphis. The time in Canada was marked by bad management decisions in almost all areas. Legendary was the case of Steve Francis, who as a rookie refused to play for the Grizzlies. A look back at an almost forgotten franchise.

19 years ago today was the largest trade in NBA history in terms of volume, with eleven players switching teams, including Orlando Magic, Houston Rockets and Vancouver Grizzlies. No big names were dealt – with one exception. Steve Francis, who the Grizzlies had pulled to number two in the draft two months earlier, was shipped to Houston.

The reason was simple – Francis simply refused to play in Vancouver. Even before the draft, the point guard made it clear that he did not want to go to Canada. Francis had previously assumed that the Chicago Bulls would vote for him, but instead the Bulls made Elton Brand the top pick and the Grizzlies actually picked up the player who threatened to strike.

Francis had to go up to the podium to Commissioner David Stern, put on the grizzlies cap and pulled a face as if Stern had just told him that he was being sentenced to life imprisonment. Francis wanted to be closer to his family, and it was not clear how he would coexist with Mike Bibby, whom the Grizzlies had brought the year before. He did not sign a contract and vehemently demanded a trade that was actually carried out shortly afterwards.

It is perhaps the best known story and one of the reasons why the Vancouver Grizzlies never got a foothold in the NBA. After only six years, the Grizzlies played their last home game at General Motors Place on April 14, 2001 – ironically against Francis and the Rockets. Vancouver lost a 19-point lead and lost 95:100, while Francis played a double double (14 points, 13 assists).

In six seasons, Grizzlies have won just 101 games (359 defeats) and recorded the worst victory rate of all franchises in history at 28 percent. Vancouver did not reach the playoffs a single time and did not score an All-Star. The fact that the NBA did not work on Canada’s west coast was not only due to a lack of willingness on the part of the players to run up there.

In 1995 there was still a sense of optimism. Together with the Toronto Raptors, the Grizzlies had been accepted by the League, but unlike in Toronto, British Columbia did not want to create a spirit of optimism. While the Raptors dragged exciting players like Vince Carter or Tracy McGrady, the Grizzlies never managed to get a real franchise player to attract the crowds.

The first round picks read as follows: Bryant “Big Country” Reeves, Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Roy Rodgers, Antonio Daniels, Mike Bibby, Steve Francis and Stromile Swift. With the exception of Rodgers, each of them was included in the top six, the yield reads rather meager. “Toronto simply had the better strategy,” recalled then assistant coach Lionel Hollins later. “They hoarded a lot of picks, did well and made some good trades.”

Of course Abdur-Rahim or Bibby were solid players, but none had real star potential. The same applied to Reeves, which the Grizzlies identified as a pillar of the franchise and equipped with a six-year contract for 62 million dollars. The fact that Reeves was prone to injury and always had weight problems did not make it any better. In the six years Big Country played 12 points and 7 rebounds on average.

So the expectations could never be fulfilled, in six years five different trainers tried each other. The result remained the same, also because the grizzlies could never find the right veterans. “We weren’t an exciting team,” Bibby admitted, “We had a lot of guys playing under the ring. The fans didn’t get what they deserved.”

The initial euphoria ebbed away so quickly, year after year the audience average declined a little. “We missed the chance back then that people became passionate grizzlies fans,” Abdur-Rahim regretted. At the last home game in 2001, signs such as’Thank you for the worst team ever’ could be seen.

Stern also had to admit that the episode in Vancouver was an absolute failure. “I wish we had never gone there with the League. It’s a fantastic city and we’ve disappointed the people and ourselves.”

But not only was the franchise in Vancouver a fiasco, also financially there were big problems. According to Dick Versace, then president of the Grizzlies, the team lost about $40 million a season. Another problem was the weak Canadian dollar at the time. Salaries had to be paid in US dollars, while profits had to be stated in Canadian currency. The team incurred costs that all other teams except Toronto did not have.

Few were surprised that in February 2001 the NBA allowed the owner Michael Heisley to look for new locations for the franchise. Heisley had bought the team the year before for 160 million and had to take a lot of criticism for his plans, but the previous owner, Bill Laurie, wanted to relocate the Grizzlies to St. Louis.

St. Louis was also an issue a year later, but Louisville, Anaheim, Buffalo and New Orleans also expressed their interest. It became Memphis, which was officially announced on July 4, 2001. The NBA had disappeared from the west of Canada, the Raptors have since been the Gallic village of the Association with the only franchise outside the United States.

But will Vancouver remain a white spot on the map forever? At least the signs are different now. Basketball has become more global, there are Canadian players like Andrew Wiggins or next year’s possible No.1 pick R.J. Barrett, who can cause a furore in the league.

“They definitely gave up too soon,” Raptor commentator Jack Armstrong analyzed on the sidelines of a preseason game in Vancouver. “It’s a pity there’s no team here. “Vancouver’s a whole different city now, and I think the NBA could be a big deal here.”

Toronto has shown how to establish a culture and inspire fans, even in the shadow of the national sport of ice hockey, which continues to dominate the headlines in the country with the maple leaf. That there is an interest in basketball has been shown by some preseason games that have almost been celebrated.

Earlier animosities of the players against a life in Canada may have subsided, as the examples of Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan in Toronto showed. As early as the 1990s, the players of the away teams liked to be guests in Vancouver, the city has a lot to offer.

The Vancouver project came a few years too early and the franchise suffered from the sometimes catastrophic decisions of the management. The saga around Francis was just a drop in the ocean. There is also an interesting’what if’ scenario. In 2012, Steve Nash’s consultant Bill Duffy revealed that the Grizzlies could have been the Canadian playmaker for Francis.

However, a trade with the Dallas Mavericks did not take place. Maybe this could have caused the necessary hype in British Columbia and the grizzlies would still be in Vancouver. All that remains is waiting for another chance for a franchise – should it ever come.