The Roaming Photographer: The Memphis Grizzlies

Photo Credit:

https://logos-world.net/memphis-grizzlies-logo/
researched and compiled by Carrie Birdsong

1995 - 2001: Vancouver Grizzlies

The Vancouver Grizzlies were a Canadian professional basketball team based in Vancouver, British Columbia. They were part of the Midwest Division of the Western Conference of the National Basketball Association (NBA). 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, being a type of bear indigenous to British Columbia(1)(2). The Grizzlies played their home games at General Motors (GM) Place for all their six seasons in Vancouver.

Relocation to Memphis

The Vancouver Grizzlies applied to the NBA to relocate to Memphis, Tennessee on March 26th, 2001, which was granted on July 3rd leaving the Toronto Raptors as the only Canadian basketball team in the NBA. The team relocated following the 2000 – 01 season and was 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(2). This is, primarily, because of the city’s proud history with a previous team, also named the 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(3)(4).

2001- 2007: The Pau Gasol era

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, general manager Billy Knight was let go despite the strong draft class. 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 Sydney Lowe as head coach after a 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 could have changed their future course by selecting any of the players as mentioned above, 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 Milicic, 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.

2004 - 2007

Brown stepped down as head coach during the 2004 – 05 season. At the time of his resignation, the Grizzlies had a losing record but West hired TNT analyst and former coach Mike Fratello to replace Brown. The Grizzlies’ record improved and the team advanced to the postseason for the second consecutive season. However, the Grizzlies were swept out in the first round again, this time by the Phoenix Suns. After the season, which with anger between Fratello and many of the players, namely Bonzi Wells and Jason Williams, the team had an active 2005 off-season in which they revamped the team and added veterans. While the Grizzlies lost Wells, Williams, Stromile Swift, and James Posey, they acquired Damon Stoudamire, Bobby Jackson, Hakim Warrick, and Eddie Jones. They made the playoffs for the third consecutive year as well.

With their record, they had the fifth seed in the Western Conference playoffs and would face the Dallas Mavericks, who swept the Grizzlies in four games. Following the 2006 NBA draft, Jerry West traded Shane Battier to the Houston Rockets for their first-round pick Rudy Gay and Stromile Swift. Before the 2006 – 07 season, they suffered a blow when Gasol broke his left foot while playing for Spain in the World Championships. The Grizzlies started the season 5 – 17 without Gasol and then went 1 – 7 while he was limited to about 25 minutes per game. At that point, Fratello was fired and replaced by Tony Barone, Sr. as interim coach. Barone was the team’s player personnel director and had never coached an NBA game though he had coached at the collegiate level for both Creighton and Texas A&M being named coach of the year in their conferences three times during his tenure.