How The Vancouver Grizzlies Were Set Up To FAIL

In 1994, the ever-popular NBA made its boldest expansion gambit yet, establishing a presence in Canada with two new franchises: one in Toronto, and another in Vancouver. Yep, Vancouver. The remote and rainy centre of British Columbia, Canada’s westernmost province — a place with virtually no basketball tradition to speak of. But while NBA basketball may never have thrived in B.C. like it eventually did in Toronto, the Vancouver Grizzlies were essentially set up to fail by the NBA, their growth stunted by a series of policy choices that prevented the team from ever becoming respectable and ultimately forced the organization to find a new home after only six seasons in Vancouver.

#vancouvergrizzlies #nba

[alock]

At least Vancouver had some of the best uniforms in NBA history.

[Crosbyever]

1. NBA screwed them over
2. Management was incompetent
3. Horrible GM moves
4. Horrible Drafting

[nbarealtalker]

Looking back, the NBA was beyond unforgivably stupid in creating various rules to INTENTIONALLY handicap new teams.

[highdough]

I moved to Vancouver just a year before their inaugural season, and had a close friend who worked for the franchise. I got lots of free tickets and inside info. This franchise was a disaster from the very start and it wasn’t just the NBA rules that set them up to fail. And Michael Heisely had zero intention of keeping the franchise in Vancouver, no matter what he claimed publicly.

[chad_b]

The Vancouver grizzlies were never given a fair chance

[peace_of_mind_]

Vancouver grizzlies had some of the dopest jerseys back in the day. I was a fan of Shareef abdur rahim back then.

[impactliving]

While it’s technically true that Vancouver only had about 500, 000 people, this does not accurately represent the size of the market. Unlike Toronto, the municipal boundaries in Van are quite small. The actual population of the greater Vancouver area was about 1.7 million.

[myvideos]

I went to a game at GM Place in 99. They had a $10 per seat deal in the upper bowl. When I had arrived with my friend to purchase 2 tickets, the box office told me that those tickets were sold out. I didn’t have enough for the other seats.

So my friend and I walked around the arena in disappointment and when someone opened a door to go outside for a cigarette, we saw our chance and we sneaked in!

Once inside we saw that the upper bowl wasn’t even half full. We felt scammed. The box office were just trying to push the more expensive tickets, of which there were plenty.

[terririnella]

i had always believed that the reason the Raptors and Grizzlies couldn't get the number 1 pick for a couple years was Orlando....but the fact that this rule (and i didn't even hear of the salary cap restriction) was never used again, proves how worthless the rule was, and how welcome back Seattle, you can't get the #1 pick for 5 years and 2/3 the salary cap, have fun.
and yes, the fact that it was done to Canadian teams made it easy to do

[gendirectmusic]

Don’t forget that the Raptors won that AI lottery and couldn’t select him either lol 10:32

[mic]

They didn't get their Vince Carter. Despite what the casuals of the raptor fanbase think, Vince Carter saved their franchise from going the way of the grizzlies.

[Christopher_Vose]

It took Memphis nine years and a 50-win season to have a higher average attendance than Vancouver.

[ivaneurope]

The Vancouver Grizzlies are also responsible for the Detroit Pistons selecting Darko Milicic over Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh or Dwyane Wade in the 2003 Draft. Vancouver traded the pick which was conditional until 2003 (if it fell at No. 1 in 2003 it would've remained in their posession) in the 1997 offseason in exchange for Otis Thorpe.

[Skinnyd]

It's true that no one knew Kobe would become Kobe, but what everyone did know was that there was no way on God's Green Earth that he would have reported to Vancouver.
He said point-blank that he wouldn't play for any team but the Lakers and then forced his way out of Charlotte.
So it isn't really fait to say that the Grizzlies should have picked him over Shareef Abdur-Rahim.

[Billy-otmk]

If they had better ownership and coaching along with Big Country staying healthy and getting better alongside Bibby and Abdur Rahim, the Grizzlies could've succeeded in Vancouver.

Their jerseys were cool.

[squiggleface]

Back in the 90s, I was a graphic designer during their 2nd season in the NBA. Thankfully, I received many tickets and really enjoyed the action and atmosphere ... even if the Grizzlies weren't very competitive.

[higgy]

I remember the most ridiculous thing that happened with the NBA on Canadian TV in 1995. With the Raptors and Grizzlies entering the league, it was decided that TSN, who was the only sports channel on Canadian cable TV at the time, decided to DROP NBA games after several seasons due to LOW RATINGS. Instead, CTV jumped aboard and showed Raptors or Grizzlies games on a WEEKLY BASIS. The rest of the games were shown on a regional basis. If you were living anywhere but the Lower Mainland of BC, you were screwed out of receiving Grizzlies games during the week. And if you weren't living in the Golden Horseshoe around Lake Ontario, you weren't able to get any mid-week Raptors games. Thanks TSN for showing more Blue Jays and Maple Leafs games nationally instead of at least one Raptors or Grizzlies game per week!!

[charliejames]

I'm all for expansion..
But can we have our Sonics back first then we can go from there...

[erics.czernecki]

If there was any more roadblocks they didn't mention here, it was that to even play their first season, the NBA inexplicably demanded 12, 500 season tickets be sold, with a minimum of 50% before January 1, 1995. I say inexplicably because they could barely hit 10, 000... the amount the NBA was okay with when Minnesota and Orlando, not exactly the largest markets themselves, did their drives. Yet for whatever reason, the NBA still wasn't satisfied. Had the pharmacy chain Shoppers Drug Mart not agreed to comp the 2, 500 remaining, they wouldn't have even started.

Also, the NBA essentially tried to force British Columbia to outlaw sports gambling if they wanted the team... even though it was not only contributing about C$1.2 million dollars a year at that time, that money went to help support local health care providers. The situation was resolved when the Grizzlies agreed to provide about $500, 000 a year to those facilities- which probably helped convince SDM to comp those tickets, but hamstrung their already tenuous finances further.

[dailydose]

I remember going to a lot of the Grizzlies games as a kid. They used to give tickets away just to get people to come. I saw a bunch of games where MJ and the Bulls came, definitely a highlight.

My favourite thing about the Grizzlies games, was if they scored 100+ points and won, you can get a free spaghetti dinner at the old spaghetti factory. I remember looking forward to that.