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For any Grizzlies fans who don't like this idea, we can just send the Lakers back to Minneapolis.

Move the Thunder back to Seattle 😥

Does OP actually follow the NBA?

If only they were actually those prices you say.. Go ahead and factor in the fees before purchases.

This post sucks

This post sucks

Sorry about noob question but can anyone suggest any NBA tipsters?

Sorry about noob question but can anyone suggest any NBA tipsters?

Man. Why we just catching strays all the time.

Nah, eat shit bro. No one deserves to have their teams taken from them, especially a market like Memphis. Expansion is the answer, not relocation.

Hard to blame the Memphis fanbase for not wanting to watch sports right now. They’re still shook up from the MLK assassination

Vancouver population is always increasing. It would be a smart move to have a team here.

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?

NBA players don’t want to live in Toronto. Trying to get them excited for Vancouver just isn’t happening.

Fuck outta here

Does OP actually follow the NBA?

thank you king

I also live in vancouver and can confirm that i see more vancouver grizzly jerseys than i do lakers.

100% - still not over our team being stolen and our branding destroyed. I will feast on Memphis' collapse.

Fuck. You.

Players complained about living in Vancouver because there’s no black people there

Pretty PLEASEEEEE

Who’s trying to go see a garbage team play without their best player? Plus players already don’t like traveling out of country to play in Toronto. Imagine growing up in LA and getting drafted to fucking Vancouver💀.

Worse than half of the Vancouver Grizzlies seasons

Mkay and then what about the other half?

maybe it has more to do with Ja being suspended.

How old were you in 2001?

Fuck you too buddy

Expansion to Canada was a mistake, too many toxic fans there. Bring the Raptors back to Kansas

That's never going to happen dog. Vancouver will get a team eventually though.

no

Memphis is fine, but OKC having an NBA team is insane. Take theirs instead.

Move the Nets back to New Jersey

Put them in Montreal! the Largest Metro population in USA/Canada without an NBA team (100k more than Seattle)

are there even any grizzly bears in Tennessee?

Celtics broadcasters raved about Toronto and its stadium, rogers arena got the same thing going on basically. Maybe less car access and more boring city overall but the coin they'd make would be worth it.

They're best putting moves in place and timing this with the next rapotrs run as the popularity of bball was defintely just revived in BC since 2015 ish. But yeah they'd sell out every night and have everything you need in place as is.

Memphis is a shit hole

Move them back to Vancouver

Move jazz to New Orleans and pels to Utah rename them the Mountaineers

Move Nets back to NJ

Move Lakers back to Minnesota

I'd laugh but I know this is serious

Their superstar, center, other point guard, other power forward are injured, nobody wants to spend money to see the 13th man be forced to get a lot of minutes, in a guaranteed loss

Nope. And this is coming for a person that LOVES Vancouver, they don't deserve it. They barely cared when the team was there. Vancouver only wanted a team because Toronto was going to get one. Montreal has a far stronger basketball culture than Vancouver does.

Give Seattle a team and the Vancouver fans can cheer for them.

The Grizzlies attendance this season (16,833) would still be the 2nd highest of the Vancouver era.

Pretty sure ticket sales were up the last 3 seasons for Memphis

Let the man complain he got his team stolen from him lmao

Grizzlies to Seattle renamed the Sonics

Well the problem is they don't have the God Dillion Brooks anymore

FUCK STEVE FRANCIS

I am all for it. We would cut the number of annoying raptors fans in half

Ja is not gonna like those pesky Canadian gun laws & regulations