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History lesson for OP:

The Vancouver Grizzlies were NBA franchise #29.

Why such an odd number of teams? Because the NBA was only going to expand to have 28 teams with Toronto, and Commissioner David Stern wanted to be more aggressive with expanding internationally so he just threw in a second franchise to fast growing Vancouver.

The NHL Canucks had just built a brand new stadium and the owner was willing to pay the expansion fee, so why not!?! It didn’t matter that the market wasn’t huge on NBA fandom; if you build it, they will come!

The ownership group knew nothing about basketball, so they just listened to the NBA on things. The team was going to be named, “Vancouver Mounties.” That was nixed when the Canadian Royal Order of Mounted Police demanded that nickname not be used. The the ownership group took on of the Toronto rejects… Grizzlies! They even used the Toronto logo design. Hey, there are grizzly bears in the area!

The team designed the ugliest uniforms in NBA history (which oddly enough become popular retro merch) that they were hoping to would match the success of the popular Charlotte Hornet jerseys, logo, and colors which led to many imitators in sports (remember the 90s Pistons colors and logo?). So the main color was teal and the logo was extremely cartoony. The uniforms were changed in the sixth or seventh season to black with teal highlights. During that first season, from my understanding the tickets were really cheap, purchasable via a major Vancouver retail outlet (I believe a grocery store). The games were heavily papered too. 1995 Vancouver was not crazy about NBA basketball.

The organization listened to the suggestion of the NBA and hired former coach Stu Jackson as general manager. Stu Jackson was super inept and kept the product on the court horrible his who tenure, six of the seven seasons. He made some deals that screwed the franchise long after he was gone and the team relocated. The on the court product was not winning fans in the market,

The Canucks and Grizz were sold to a new owner. The new owner did not want to keep the money losing Grizzlies. So the Grizz were sold. Originally to Bill Laurie; brother-in-law to Nuggets/Avs owner Stan Kroenke. Laurie announced he was relocating the team to St. Louis to play along side the St. Louis Blues NHL team that he owned. David Stern blocked the relocation to STL, which caused the purchase to collapse. Chicago billionaire Michael Heisley swooped in to buy the team for $40 million less than Bill Laurie. Heisley promised to make it work in Vancouver. He even sang “O’Canada” during the first game of the 2000 - 2001 season.

During the season, Heisley announced making it work in Vancouver was a lost cause. The market didn’t care much about the team so attendance wasn’t good. It was understand about because the franchise was horrible all 7 seasons and despite having talented players, they never had the chemistry to win. They drafted a bust in Antonio Daniels (who became a journey man role player) in 1997 (following Bryant Reeves was mid and Shareef Abdul Rahim who was a jobber for the stars), and tried again with a point guard in Mike Bibby who was really good in 1998. The franchise missed out on finding a way to get local product Steve Nash who had a disappointing rookie year in Phoenix. In 1999, with the number 2 pick, the third straight point guard was selected, Steve Francis. Francis was very vocal about not wanting to go to Vancouver. That whole fiasco made for another embarrassment for the franchise, which traded Francis to Houston where he was co-Rookie of the year. In 2000, the Grizz drafted Stromile Swift in possibly the weakest draft class in NBA history. The fans just weren’t there.

What was worse economically though, wasn’t the lack of fans in the market. The worse issues were that the Grizzlies played in the building owned by the Canucks, and as a result, received less in-stadium revenue. They didn’t get parking, ad revenue, luxury suite, etc, Also in 2000/2001, the Canadian dollar was at an all-time low against the US dollar. Since NBA salaries were paid in US dollars but the stadium revenue was in Canadian dollars, the team was losing lots of money.

Heisley wasn’t originally considering Memphis. At the time, what we in Memphis didn’t know is some super wealthy people were secretly negotiating with the Charlotte Hornets about moving to Memphis. So David Stern directed Heisley towards Memphis. Memphis had two huge sports advertisers that David Stern wanted to spend money with the NBA, FedEx and AutoZone. Memphis had investors willing to buy a minority share of the team. And unlike Vancouver, NBA basketball was really popular in Memphis.

Memphis, Anaheim, New Orleans, and Louisville were the cities most likely to get the team. Memphis got it because the Pyramid was sufficient as a temporary stadium, FedEx was really behind the NBA coming to town, and the city was willing to build an arena the Grizz would control.

The nickname stayed Grizzlies because Memphis accepted it. There was a popular minor league football team that had been called the Memphis Grizzlies in the 1970s so the nickname wasn’t foreign to the market. The popular college team is nicknamed the “Tigers” so there was good symmetry there. If the name would have changed, it would have been “Memphis Express” but the NBA nixed that idea because FedEx announced they would pay the team to take that name and would have a jersey patch logo. The NBA announced that wasn’t allowed and teams wouldn’t have sponsors on the jerseys.

Memphis is a smaller market than Vancouver. But hey, Winnipeg is even more small than Atlanta. How many Thrashers fans are talking about how much better it would be if the team was in Atlanta?