Memphis Grizzlies

Team information

• Inaugural season: 1995
• Home arena: FedExForum, Memphis, Tennessee
• Owner: Robert J. Pera
• Team colors: Memphis midnight blue, Beale Street blue, steel gray, and gold

Overview

The Memphis Grizzlies are a professional basketball team that plays in the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) Western Conference. The franchise was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, as part of the NBA’s attempt to expand into Canada in the mid-1990s. While the NBA’s foray into Toronto was successful, the Vancouver franchise struggled both on and off the court. After six seasons in which the Grizzlies set NBA marks for futility, the team moved to Memphis in 2001. The franchise fared better in Memphis, posting its first winning seasons and making several playoff appearances in the 2000s. A decade later, Memphis rose to become one of the Western Conference’s more competitive teams, even advancing to the conference finals in 2013. After a seven-year run of success, the franchise again fell on hard times in the late 2010s, but rebounded in the 2020s.

History

Throughout the 1980s, the NBA experienced a period of rapid growth, increasing both its popularity among fans and financial bottom line. To take advantage of this success, the league began a series of expansions that saw it grow from twenty-two teams in 1980 to twenty-seven teams by 1989. In the early 1990s, the NBA was looking to expand northward and carve out a niche among Canadian basketball fans. In November 1993, the NBA announced that Toronto would receive a new franchise, and a few months later, Vancouver was announced as the second Canadian NBA team. The franchise owner, Arthur Griffiths, also owned the NHL’s Vancouver Canucks and hoped to tap into the city’s enthusiastic hockey fanbase. The team was originally going to be called the Vancouver Mounties, but the name was changed after the Royal Canadian Mounted Police voiced its objections. Instead, the name Grizzlies was chosen as a reference to the large bear species common in the region.

The Vancouver Grizzlies began play in the 1995–1996 season and actually started out 2–0. However, the rest of the season was a disaster as Vancouver won just thirteen more games and finished with a league-worst 15–67 record. The Grizzlies also set what was then an NBA record for most consecutive losses in a single season with twenty-three. The next several years were little better, as Vancouver won just fourteen games in 1996–1997 and nineteen games in 1997–1998. The next season was drastically shortened by a labor dispute between owners and players. With the season not starting until February 1999, the Grizzlies won just eight games. In all, from 1995–2001, the Grizzlies were an NBA-worst 101–359 over that time. The team finished last in its division each year except for one and never placed a single player on the NBA All-Star team.

Vancouver’s failure as an NBA franchise was fueled by many factors, including poor marketing, an unpopular logo and color scheme, and bad luck in the annual NBA Draft lottery. Despite finishing with the league’s worst record several times, the Grizzlies never won the top overall pick and watched the best young players get selected by other teams. Griffiths had sold the franchise in 1997, and by 2001, its new owner was also looking to sell. The franchise was purchased by US businessperson Michael Heisley who moved it to Memphis, Tennessee, for the start of the 2001–2002 season.

On the court, Memphis’ fortunes did not seem to improve much with the move, as the team won just twenty-three and twenty-eight games in its first two seasons in its new home. However, the foundation of a turnaround had been started in 2001 when the Grizzlies acquired center/forward Pau Gasol. Gasol, who had been a star in his native Spain, was selected third overall in the 2001 NBA Draft by the Atlanta Hawks and traded to Memphis. Early in the 2002–2003 season, the team hired Hubie Brown, a veteran coach who had previous experience with Atlanta and the New York Knicks. Everything came together for Memphis in 2003–2004, as the Grizzlies won fifty games and made the playoffs for the first time in history. Brown was named the NBA’s Coach of the Year.

Prior to the 2004–2005 season, the franchise gave its image a makeover by replacing its teal blue color scheme with shades of blue, gray, and gold. The blues were branded to reflect the city as the darker shade was called Memphis midnight blue and the lighter shade Beale Street blue. The team also ditched its basketball-clutching grizzly bear logo for a gold-eyed, intense-looking bear head that incorporated the team’s new colors. The logo was updated in 2018 but still kept the same basic look and color scheme. The franchise also moved into the FedExForum in 2004. FedEx had tried to buy the naming rights for the team when it moved to Memphis in 2001, hoping to call the franchise the Memphis Express. However, the NBA turned down the proposal.

Memphis made the playoffs again in 2004–2005—despite Brown stepping down after twelve games for health reasons—and returned again in 2005–2006. However, each playoff appearance was short-lived, as Memphis lost in the opening round all three times. Prior to the 2006–2007 season, Gasol broke his foot while playing for Spain in the World Championships. Although he returned to the team, Gasol continued to be hampered by the injury. The Grizzlies once again struggled and finished with the NBA’s worst record. In the midst of another poor season in 2007–2008, Gasol was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Ironically, one of the players the Grizzlies received in return was Pau’s younger brother Marc Gasol. This move, combined with the selection of guard Mike Conley in the 2007 NBA Draft, would set the stage for the franchise’s great period of success. Memphis missed the playoffs from 2007–2010 but returned to the postseason in 2010–2011, winning a playoff series for the first time. It marked the first of seven consecutive trips to the NBA playoffs for Memphis, which also saw new owner Robert Pera take control of the team in 2012. The 2012–2013 season marked the high-water mark for the franchise, as the Grizzlies advanced all the way to the Western Conference Finals. Memphis upset top-seeded Oklahoma City to reach the finals where they lost to the eventual NBA champion San Antonio Spurs.

After the franchise’s playoff streak ended with the 2017–2018 season, Memphis once again finished among the league’s worst teams. Prior to the 2019 NBA Draft, Memphis won the second pick in the draft lottery and selected point guard Ja Morant out of Murray State.

Morant won the 2020 NBA Rookie of the Year Award and quickly blossomed into a superstar on the court. He averaged 27.4 points per game in the 2021–2022 season and 26.2 points per game in the 2022–2023 season. He made the NBA All-Star team both times. Morant’s play boosted the Grizzlies, who made the playoffs from 2021 to 2023. However, in early 2023, Morant posted a video of himself holding a gun on social media, drawing an eight-game suspension from the NBA. Later that year, he was seen in another video holding another gun. This time, the NBA hit him with a twenty-five-game suspension. His eventual return to the court was short-lived, as Morant suffered a season-ending shoulder injury just nine games after his suspension was lifted.   

Notable players

During the franchise’s years in Vancouver, its only true star player was forward Shareef Abdur-Rahim who was selected with the third overall pick in the 1996 NBA Draft. Abdur-Rahim played with the Grizzlies until 2001 and during that time averaged 20.8 points and 8.2 rebounds per game. He made one All-Star appearance in his career but that came in 2002 after he had been traded to Atlanta. Pau Gasol won the NBA Rookie of the Year award in 2002 and was the team’s first All-Star, earning that honor in the 2005–2006 season. In Memphis from 2001–2008, Gasol averaged 18.8 points and 8.6 rebounds a game. He is fourth on the franchise’s career points list with 8,966 and third in rebounds with 4,096. He went on to make five more All-Star teams after he was traded and won two championships with the Lakers in 2008 and 2009.

In 2009, Memphis traded for Zach Randolph, a center/forward who had spent eight seasons with the Portland Trailblazers, New York Knicks, and Los Angeles Clippers. From 2009–2017, Randolph averaged 16.8 points and 10.2 rebounds per game for Memphis. In addition to his two All-Star Game appearances, Randolph is third on the all-time franchise list for points scored with 9,261 and second in rebounds with 5,612. Marc Gasol made three All-Star appearances with Memphis from 2008–2019. During those eleven seasons, he averaged 15.2 points and 7.7 rebounds per game. He holds the team record for career rebounds with 5,942 and is second in scoring with 11,684.

Arguably, the best player in Grizzlies’ history was Mike Conley, the fourth overall pick in the 2007 NBA Draft out of Ohio State University. Conley played for Memphis from 2007–2019, and is the franchise leader in games played with 788. Conley is also the team’s all-time leader in scoring with 11,733 points, assists with 4,509, steals with 1,161, and three-point field goals with 1,086.

Bibliography

“Ja Morant Suspended 25 Games by NBA.” NBA.com, 16 June 2023, www.nba.com/news/ja-morant-suspended-25-games. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Lee, Steve. “The Memphis Grizzlies All-Time Team.” Last Word on Pro Basketball, 8 Sept. 2019, lastwordonprobasketball.com/2019/09/08/the-memphis-grizzlies-all-time-team/. Accessed 8 Apr. 2020.

“Memphis Grizzlies.” Basketball Reference, 2024, www.basketball-reference.com/teams/MEM/. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

“Memphis Grizzlies Team History.” Sports Team History, 2020, sportsteamhistory.com/memphis-grizzlies. Accessed 8 Apr. 2020.

Mullinax, Joe. “Memphis Grizzlies Select Ja Morant #2 Overall in 2019 NBA Draft.” Grizzly Bear Blues, 2020, www.grizzlybearblues.com/2019/6/20/18692438/memphis-grizzlies-select-ja-morant-2-overall-in-2019-nba-draft-murray-state. Accessed 8 Apr. 2020.

Schwartz, Perry. “NBA: A Case Study of the Vancouver Grizzlies.” Bleacher Report, 19 Jan. 2011, bleacherreport.com/articles/578763-the-vancouver-grizzlies-a-case-study. Accessed 8 Apr. 2020.

“Vancouver Grizzlies.” Canadian Encyclopedia, 15 Dec. 2013, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/vancouver-grizzlies. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Whiting, Jim. The NBA: A History of Hoops: Memphis Grizzlies. Creative Paperbacks, 2017.