Memphis Grizzlies

Lore & Background

The Vancouver Grizzlies were based in Vancouver, Canada, and were part of the NBA's Midwest Division in the Western Conference. The team was established in 1995, along with the Toronto Raptors, as part of the NBA's expansion into Canada. Original proposals were for the team to be called the Vancouver Mounties, but objections from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police forced the team to find a new name. The nickname, 'Grizzlies' was eventually selected, named after the grizzly bear indigenous to British Columbia.

The Grizzlies played their home games at General Motors (GM) Place for the entirety of their six seasons in Vancouver. The Vancouver Grizzlies applied to the NBA to relocate to Memphis, Tennessee on March 26, 2001, which was granted on July 3 leaving the Toronto Raptors as the only Canadian basketball team in the NBA. The team relocated following the 2000–01 season and were renamed the Memphis Grizzlies. After moving to Memphis, the team explored the possibility of changing 'Grizzlies' to another name that better reflected the Memphis area.

However, the community strongly supported the existing name. This is, primarily, because of the city's proud history with a previous team, also named Memphis Grizzlies. The original Memphis Grizzlies franchise played in the World Football League from 1974 to 1975. Memphis became the easternmost city in the Western Conference.

In their first three seasons in Memphis, the Grizzlies played their home games at the Pyramid Arena. The city of Memphis was previously represented by the Memphis Sounds of the American Basketball Association (ABA) from 1970 to 1975.

Reader's Guide

In the 2001 NBA draft, the Atlanta Hawks chose Pau Gasol as the third overall pick, trading him to the Grizzlies. Forward Shane Battier was selected with the sixth pick in the same draft by the Vancouver Grizzlies. They also acquired Jason Williams from the Sacramento Kings in exchange for Mike Bibby that same year. After the Grizzlies' first season in Memphis, Gasol won the NBA Rookie of the Year Award.

However, despite the strong draft class, general manager Billy Knight was let go. After Knight's departure and the season, the team hired former Los Angeles Laker and Hall of Famer Jerry West as general manager in 2002, who later received the 2003–04 NBA Executive of the Year Award. After West's arrival the team was changed a great deal from Knight's team, with the removal of Sidney Lowe as head coach after 0–8 start to the season and a great deal of player movement, with players such as Mike Miller and James Posey becoming vital to the team's success.

During the 2002–03 season, Hubie Brown was hired to coach the Grizzlies. Before the team could improve, though, one final mistake from the Vancouver era happened to bite them. Their first round pick in the 2003 NBA draft, in which they could have had their choice of future All-Stars Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh, or Dwyane Wade, had been traded to the Detroit Pistons in 1997 for Otis Thorpe. Due to the structure of the lottery, the Grizzlies ended up losing the second overall pick, one which likely could have changed their future course by selecting any of the aforementioned players, for a player who didn't even play a full season for the team, playing only 47 games for the team before being released.

Even considering the Pistons themselves used the pick on Darko Miličić, widely considered one of that year's biggest draft busts, the Grizzlies had indirectly performed one of the most lopsided trades in NBA history. Brown won the NBA Coach of the Year Award during the next season when the Grizzlies made the NBA playoffs for the first time in team history in 2004 as the sixth seed in the Western Conference in a drastic change from being perennially one of the worst teams in the NBA.

They also won a then-record 50 games under Gasol and Williams. In the playoffs, they faced the San Antonio Spurs, who swept them out of the playoffs in four games. Brown stepped down as head coach during the 2004–05 season.